Applicants are invited to download and complete the Word application form below, which should be sent to elsa@ucl.ac.uk. Applications will be evaluated by the ELSA-GDAC. This committee meets monthly, but decisions can be made between meetings.

Favourable decisions about these applications depend on the suitability of the ELSA phenotypic data for the topic under investigation and the potential for identification of the participant despite de-identification of the data.

Applicants should allow three months for this process, though most should be completed within one month. Please bear this in mind if you are making a grant application around these data. See more information below.

Application form [link to file]

Assessment criteria [link to file]

Plain language summaries guidance [link to file]

Incidental findings guidance [link to file]

a. The samples and related data and intellectual property rights

belong to the collaborating institutions (UCL, Institute for Fiscal

Studies, the University of Manchester, the University of East

Anglia and NatCen Social Research).

b. If any commercial revenues result from the Recipient's use of the

materials, UCL shall be entitled to a fair and reasonable share of

any such revenues that accrue to the Institution or the Recipient.

c. The applicant will acknowledge the UK government funding

departments NIA, UCL Genomics, LGC Genomics and Source

BioScience where appropriate. The following language should be

used 'Samples from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

were used in this study. ELSA is funded by the National Institute

on Aging (NIH) and by a consortium of UK government

departments: Department of Health and Social Care; Department for Transport; Department for Work and Pensions,

coordinated by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Funding has also been provided by the Economic and Social

Research Council (ESRC). We thank contributors and the ELSA

participants’.

d. Data provided to the applicants can only be used for the

purposes originally stated and must not be used in any other way

without re-application to the ELSA-GDAC.

e. No data should be passed on to any third party unless they were

specified in the original application.

f. No applications that request sole access to a specific phenotype

will be accepted.

g. Any grant applications based on the genotyping data should

include a covering letter from the ELSA-GDAC stating that the

project has been approved by the committee or will be

considered on a specific date.

Applicants who require agreement before submitting grants should bear in mind that the ELSA-GDAC must receive the completed research proposal form at least one month before the submission deadline.

It is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure compliance with their funder’s terms and conditions with respect to their use of ELSA genetic data. Supervisors are ultimately responsible for their PhD students in the same way that PIs are responsible for their researchers.

We therefore request that any proposals for PhD projects are submitted jointly with the supervisor rather than the student themselves.

ELSA receives funding from the National Institute on Aging via the National Institutes of Health in the US and a consortium of Government Departments coordinated by NIHR to support data collection and basic data management.

This does not extend to providing support for individual projects, and researchers will be expected to meet the additional costs for data access and provision. All researchers who make a successful application to access ELSA genetic data linked to phenotypic data will be charged on a cost recovery basis. This cost will vary depending on the amount and type of data. The charges for data requests are outlined in Table 1.

Please note, we cannot give discounts to PhD students or for any other reason. Once a proposal has been approved and the applicant informed of the costs, these are non-negotiable. Costs will be determined on a project-by-project basis and will reflect the true costs to the ELSA team of providing the resources requested. Once a proposal has been agreed in principle an accurate costing will be provided.

Example costings for data requests are provided below. Data will not be provided until an invoice has been settled or a purchase order number is received by our finance department. VAT will be charged where applicable.

For any further questions please contact elsa@ucl.ac.uk.