We've had a busy start to 2022 so far, we thought you might like to know what we've been up to recently now that spring has sprung!
Changes at NHS R&D North West
NHS R&D North West has welcomed new CEO, Amanda Craig into her leadership role. Amanda is no stranger to the team and has worked with them as an Associate Director for the past three years. Amanda has worked predominantly in the public sector across a number of service areas including health and social care and has held senior roles in audit, governance, strategy and operational planning both at a local and national level.
On her appointment Amanda said:
“It is a privilege to be able to work with such a dedicated and vocational team of individuals at NHS R&D North West, and to continue to build positive relationships with our health and care partners across the North West Region. I am looking forward to seeing how we can grow the support we provide to health and care researchers both through the programmes of work we deliver and also through the growth of our communities of practice. Now more than ever, we must champion and support the work of our health and care practitioners.”
ECR Pathway Programme 2022
As you may be aware, we have now successfully run two cohorts of our ECR Pathway Programme, in collaboration with NIHR CRN NWC and GM. Cohort two finished in March with a celebration event (see photos below). The programme is part of a Level 7, 20 credit M Level module within the University of Liverpool. We are really proud of cohort two and all that they have achieved over the last few months! A huge well done to all!
Good news! We are really excited that we've got the go ahead to run another cohort later this year! It will be an application process and as always, places will be limited. To read more on the programme and see what it's all about, please click here. We hope to have the advert out very soon, so please do keep up to date with our communications and social media channels!
Health and Care EXPO 2022
Its hard to believe that the Health and Care EXPO for the North West Region has finished its “live” phase for this year. Launched on 21st March, the EXPO ran for 4 weeks with a comprehensive live programme of events and an immersive on-line digital gallery.
Designed to showcase the health and care researcher’s experience, EXPO was sponsored by the Strategic Partnership (HEE NW, Greater Manchester CRN, North West Coast CRN and ourselves) driving the NW of England Regional NMAHP Research Capability and Capacity Strategy. We also welcomed the University of Liverpool as a partner to this event, and they took the opportunity of showcasing their work with health and care practitioners across a number of “Provocations” events.
We are currently in the curation phase of EXPO work and we are reviewing the materials gathered through the EXPO to create an on-line resource which will be used to help current and future researchers map their way through the health and care research landscape. The curated materials will be available from 30th June, 2022 and free to access and use.
HEE Internship Programme
2022 saw the return of the HEE Internship Programme to the NHS R&D Northwest team in collaboration with the University of Salford for applicants in the North West. The internship is open to all NMAHPs who wish to embark on a clinical academic career and make a difference through undertaking high quality clinical research.
Over 30 applications were received and after a rigorous application process 12 early career researchers were offered a place on this prestigious programme.
April saw the first 2-day residential for the successful awardees held at Lancaster House Hotel, Lancaster. Over the 2 days the awardees learnt about clinical academic pathways, what it is like to be a clinical academic, the work-life balance of making such a commitment and explored their own personal development. This programme is very much an opportunity for those with an interest in research to “dip their toes in the water” of the clinical academic research world.
These internships are funded by Health Education England providing the first step onto a clinical academic career pathway.
If anyone is interested in the HEE Internship, further details can be found on our website or please contact Jo Simpson
Adult Social Care Practitioner Internship
In May we launched the Adult Social Care Practitioner Internship. The programme is the first Practitioner Researcher Internship for adult social care across the Northwest region of England. These innovative and highly prestigious internships provide the first step onto a practitioner researcher career pathway.
The format of the programme is the same as the HEE Internship for NMAHPs however this programme is not open to anyone employed in the NHS and is purely for Adult Social Care Practitioners. The internship attracts funding for protected time buy-out along with a dedicated period for successful awardees to consider and contribute to research capacity and research capability building within social care services.
Interviews for the scheme are due to take place in June and the programme will commence with a 2-day residential in August.
Further information regarding the scheme can be found on our website or please contact Jo Simpson
This newly developed scheme is currently in the pilot stage however with the support of our partners we hope to be able to deliver further cohorts.
Provocation Series
The Provocations Seminar Series was developed to introduce researchers in health and social care to the research of academics working in humanities and social sciences, research that they would be unlikely to come across otherwise.
The pilot seminar happened in July 2021 where Dr Lucienne Loh, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool introduced the concept of Racialised Consciousness. In October 2021 Dr David Oakey and Dr Chris Jones, Linguists from the Department of English, shared their research on The Use of Language in Public Health messages relating to COVID and asked participants to consider how the language they use impacts on the clinical care that they give. In April 2022, Dr Eduardo Coutinho shared his research on the impact of music on mental health.
If you would like to know more about these seminars and participate in them, please get in touch withJo Simpson
NIHR Incubator Film Series
Working in collaboration with the NIHR Nursing and Midwifery Incubator, earlier this month we got started with filming four inspiring individuals* as part of this series. Filming took place at Gorton Monastery with our team. Stay tuned for when the films will be released!
*These short films will be show-casing individual nurses and midwives who have successfully received an NIHR research fellowship and are pursuing clinical academic careers. These films will be designed to promote clinical academic careers and engage nurses and midwives in research. Watch this space for when they launch!*
New Blog Post
Our Associate Director, Caroline Pickstone has kindly produced a new blog post for our website... a snippet of the post can be read below.
''As the current Bridging Scheme continues, I have been reflecting on the offering and the value it can bring to those who secure places. The scheme is funded by HEE with the intention of funding clinicians who want to build a clinical academic career and are ready to apply for a PhD Fellowship. Those who are successful will form part of the growing clinical academic infrastructure and be in a position to deliver applied health research studies in the future... To read the full article, please click here
A few photos from our ECR Pathway Celebration Event back in March, working in collaboration with the NIHR CRN North West Coast and CRN Greater Manchester!
Opportunities and dates for your diaries:
NIHR Research Design Service Yorkshire & Humber have got the following Grant Writing and Fellowship Workshops coming up soon see below:
