Welcome to the National Institute for Health Research
Research Design Service for the East Midlands
(formerly Trent RDSU)

What is a Research Design Service?

National Institute for Health Research Research Design Services' (NIHR RDSs) aim is to increase the volume and quality of successful grant applications for NIHR funding. To do this they provide expert advice to help local researchers to develop and design high quality research proposals for submission to national, peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research.  The RDS is part of the NIHR infrastructure and is a national service regionally delivered working to the maxim "consistency where possible, flexibility where appropriate". The support is provided free of charge.

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands (RDS-EM) has its main bases in Leicester and Nottingham with other associated staff located within the geographical area covered by RDS-EM. There is a wide skill-mix of staff including statisticians, qualitative researchers, epidemiologists, health economists, patient and public involvement experts and information specialists. RDS-EM staff are research-active and have considerable expertise in developing and designing high quality research proposals. Download the RDS-EM general leaflet here.