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The NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) gives health, public health, and social care researchers in England free, confidential expert help with designing a study and developing a funding application — before a grant exists, and again once a study is underway. It is easy to confuse with the separate NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN), which supports running a study once it is funded; this page covers what the RSS specifically does, how it is organised, and how to actually reach it.
What the RSS is, and what it replaced
The NIHR Research Support Service launched in October 2023 as a single national service, taking over from the previous Research Design Service (RDS), which had operated on a similar regional-hub model since 2008. The stated purpose is to provide free and confidential support, advice, and expertise for researchers in England working across the remit of the NIHR — covering applied health, public health, and social care research from pre-application design through to post-award delivery support. The RSS is open to researchers at all career stages, including early-career investigators and health and care professionals developing their first application, not only established chief investigators.
What kind of help it actually provides
The RSS’s core work is methodological: helping a research team turn a research idea into a fundable, well-designed application. In practice that covers:
- Study design and choice of methodology (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods) appropriate to the research question
- Statistical design, including sample size and power calculations
- Patient and public involvement (PPI) input into a proposal before submission
- Reviewing and strengthening a draft application before it goes to a funding committee
- Signposting to the right NIHR funding programme — see CASRAI’s general NIHR funding guide and NIHR fellowships guide for the funding side this feeds into
What it does not do: the RSS does not fund research itself, does not manage NHS site delivery or recruitment (that is the RDN’s job, via portfolio adoption), and does not replace a Clinical Trials Unit’s role in running a complex, already-funded trial.
How it is organised: regional hubs and specialist centres
The RSS is delivered through eight regional RSS Hubs across England, each hosted by a university or partnership of universities and working closely with local clinical trials units. On top of the regional hubs, the RSS runs national Specialist Centres for particular research types that benefit from dedicated, cross-region expertise — a Specialist Centre for Public Health and a Specialist Centre for Social Care are both named among the service’s national resources, reflecting that the RSS’s remit deliberately extends beyond clinical research into public health and social care study design. A researcher normally starts by contacting whichever regional Hub covers their institution; the Hub then draws on the relevant Specialist Centre if the study’s subject area calls for it.
RSS versus RDN versus a Clinical Trials Unit
These three pieces of UK research infrastructure are sequential, not overlapping, and study teams new to the NHS research system frequently conflate them:
- RSS — helps design the study and write the funding application, before there is a grant.
- RDN — once funded, gets the study running at NHS sites: portfolio adoption, NHS support-cost attribution via SoECAT, and recruitment support.
- Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) — provides ongoing trial management, statistics, data management, and (for CTUs registered with the UK Clinical Research Collaboration) specialist trial-conduct expertise, typically as a named collaborator on the funding application the RSS helped develop.
A typical funded NHS trial in England will have engaged all three at different points: RSS during the design and application stage, a CTU named as trial-management collaborator within that same application, and RDN portfolio adoption once the award is confirmed and the trial is ready to open at sites.
Frequently asked questions
Is the RSS the same as the old Research Design Service (RDS)?
The RSS is the direct successor to the RDS — NIHR consolidated the RDS’s regional design-support model into the single national RSS in October 2023. Older guidance or institutional pages referring to “RDS” support are describing what is now delivered through the RSS.
Does the RSS cost anything?
No. Support from the RSS is free and confidential to eligible researchers in England; there is no fee to consult a regional Hub or Specialist Centre about a proposed study.
Can an early-career researcher use the RSS, or is it only for established investigators?
The RSS is explicitly positioned as available to researchers at all career stages, including early-career investigators and clinical or care professionals developing their first funding application, not only established chief investigators.
Sources: NIHR, “National service to support researchers on their research journey,” 2 October 2023; NIHR, “NIHR announces Research Support Service to establish new pre- and post-application support for researchers,” 29 June 2023; NIHR Research Support Service hub pages (nihr.ac.uk/support-and-services/research-support-service).
