Make arrangements for support costs and excess treatment costs (ETCs) in the NHS and social care

Support costs

The cost of delivering research in NHS secondary care (support costs) are met from the local NHS organisations’ local support and delivery funding.

You will need to make sure these costs are clearly identified as part of your costings. This allows NHS organisations to manage resources such as research nurses to deliver the study.

The cost of delivering research in NHS primary care, social care, public health and emergency care, support costs, can be covered through the Health and Care Research Wales central fund.  You can find out more about applying for support costs below.

Excess treatment costs

NHS treatment and service user costs associated with research are the responsibility of the NHS and local authority, and should be funded through normal commissioning arrangements.

Excess treatment costs (ETCs), the costs over and above standard care, are also the responsibility of the NHS/local authority but, there may be funding available for these through the Health and Care Research Wales central fund.

When a schedule of event cost attribution tool (SoECAT) is used for a grant application/IRAS application for non-commercial studies, it is the decision of the local organisation as to whether they would like to use the figure generated by the SoECAT or to complete an ETC application form.

The ETC figure generated by the SoECAT can be used - avoiding the need for completing a Health and Care Research Wales ETC application form. This approach generates an average ETC value which is the same for all arms of the study. 

You can find out more about applying for excess treatment costs (ETCs) below. This process is critical to ensuring the NHS organisation and local authorities can identify and apply for the right funding, avoiding delays.

Excess treatment costs - guidance for secondary care 

3.1 Excess treatment cost guidance

3.2 Excess treatment cost application

3.3 Excess treatment costing template

Support costs/excess treatment costs for primary care, emergency care, Public Health Wales and social care

4.1 Non-secondary care support cost application

4.2 Non-secondary care excess treatment cost application

For expert advice contact the Health and Care Research Wales support and delivery service.