The TSA is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC)

As a member, we are committed to following the principles and practices of effective grant management to include the AMRC’s five principles of peer review, which you can view here.

TSA fully supports the AMRC’s statement on animal research, which you can read more about at the bottom of this page. We also support the AMRC’s position statement on supporting research in universities, which can be found here.

As part of our bi-annual grant round, we offer three different types of funding schemes. More information on this can be found in the section below.

Research application process

We hold a formal award round every two years, where we go through a rigorous decision-making process. This process ensures we fund the most appropriate and worthwhile projects, in line with our research strategy and in the best interest of individuals living with TSC and their families.

During award rounds, we ask potential applicants to complete and return the following documents:

• Application form (please contact our research team to receive this form)
• Full proposal/protocol for the study
• Biography for each person who will work on the project
• Relevant ethical or other regulatory approval letters
• A use of animals in research form (if applicable, please contact our research team to receive this form)

Upon receipt of an application and all required documentation, the TSA will review the funding request to check its eligibility and to ensure that the research matches our own research strategy.

The applications are then sent to carefully selected external and internal peer reviewers. Peer review is the only way to ensure the very best research is selected for funding and that it is not duplicated by research elsewhere. Our supporters can be confident that the money they raise in good faith is spent in the most effective way, with the best chance of success to improve diagnosis and treatments of TSC.

External peer reviews are carried out by national and international experts, who provide written comments and score the application.

Internal peer reviews are carried out by members of our research committee (RESCOM) (read more about RESCOM here).

Both groups of peer reviewers prepare questions for the applicants, which are collated by our research team and sent anonymously to the applicants. This is known as a rebuttal. Applicants are given suitable time to respond to the rebuttal.

RESCOM members then meet to discuss the applications, the written peer review comments and each applicant’s response to their rebuttal. Members then score each application and rank them. The Chair of RESCOM then makes a recommendation to our financial committee and our Board of Trustees.

We remind all applicants to work with their finance offices, clinical trials units, local NHS trusts and the local NIHR Clinical Research Network (LCRN) to ensure that all the costs of research have been identified and are appropriately funded.

Applications for co-funding

The TSA’s research strategy for 2019 – 2023 encourages us to work closer with other groups who share the same goals that we do in researching TSC. Instead of enabling research as a sole funder, we try to share the cost of a study with other groups

By spreading the cost of funding research with other groups, we can encourage groups who might not otherwise fund TSC research alone to pledge money by working with us. Often, this will mean that more funds are made available overall to continue to drive research into TSC.

Examples of other funders includes (but is not limited to):

• Autistica
• Epilepsy Research UK
• Kidney Research UK
• The LAM Foundation
• TS Alliance

If you would like to apply for co-funding, please contact our research team in advance of submitting your application. It is important to approach us as early as possible, so that we can consider the request, approach the other funder(s) and review our processes. If a co-funding application is agreed, we or the other funder(s) will manage the application review process. This will be discussed by all funders and a suitable approach will be agreed.