Tagged / NIHR

Celebrating with the RNLI

Awarded & submitted bids, international, PG research, Publishing

Staff in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences at Bournemouth University (BU) would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the charity the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) on its 200th anniversary!  Some of us have personal experience of working with the RNLI.  For example, Adam Bancroft, Programme Lead in Paramedic Science and Senior Lecturer in Paramedic Science, in the Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences has been a lifeboat volunteer  Adam and his wife Paula were  both volunteer crew at Tower RNLI on the banks of the river Thames, which is still the busiest RNLI station in the UK.   They would commit to at least two shifts a month where they would be at a state of readiness to launch at moments notice on the pier, ready to respond. 
The picture of Adam and Paula was taken in 2013 for the RNLI as part of a photo shoot that was published in the Lifeboat magazine featuring volunteers and the different walks of life from across the UK and Ireland and the Channel Islands.  I am not sure Adam wants me to share this, but on their wedding day the ‘car’ for Paula was the spare RNLI boat, crewed by volunteer and full-time crew who gave their time to deliver her to the party boat for the service.  Adam did say that sadly neither of them able to volunteer now.
In a very different way of working with the RNLI, BU academics currently are involved in a collaborative research project with RNLI to prevent the drowning of toddlers under the age of two in rural Bangladesh.  This project called Sonamoni.  BU is leading this interdisciplinary study of nearly £1.7 million funded by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
This interdisciplinary project is a collaboration of BU’s Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH), BU’s Department in Accounting, Finance & Economics and Department of Design & Engineering, and external partners, namely the University of the West of England, the University of Southampton, the Poole-based RNLI and in Bangladesh the research organisation CIPRB (Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh), and in Uganda Design Without Borders (DWB).  The Bournemouth University team comprises staff from three faculties: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and one PhD student Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH

Postdoc Appreciation Week: Local Authority Adult Social Care Recruitment and Retention research project

PG research

This week is UK Postostdoc Appreciation Week and we are celebrating and showcasing the achievements of our postdoctoral researchers and their important contribution to research at BU. 

Today’s post is by Dr Andy Pulman, Postdoctoral Researcher in Social Care, who shares details of his research exploring recruitment and retention in social care… 

An effective health service is reliant on an effective social care system, and it is therefore vital that we develop a robust research base for social care, to ensure that local authorities (LAs) and third sector organisations provide the most effective services within a wider integrated system of health and social care.

The National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work (NCPQSW) has been contributing to this area of national research recently by helping to generate deeper insights into the challenges of building capacity to undertake social care research across the sector and the opportunities for building research engagement and capacity across Higher Education Institutions and the social care sector in the Wessex region (Dorset, South Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight).

In 2022, Professor Lee-Ann Fenge (PI) and Dr Andy Pulman (Post Doc) completed a year-long study examining social care research enablers – which could help to build a positive research environment – and barriers – which might prevent or limit a positive research environment for practitioners. We are currently working on a follow up project – one of four in the Wessex region being funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) – building on this initial scoping work.

Our study explores local recruitment (employing people as adult social care staff) and retention (providing a working environment where they want to stay) issues in adult social care from the perspective of four populations of interest:

  1. Social care practitioners currently working in two local LAs – Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) and Dorset.
  2. Social care staff with responsibility for performing exit interviews with LA staff (prior to their leaving the LA) currently working in the two local LAs.
  3. Students currently enrolled in social care undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (within the Wessex region) who might enter the adult social care workforce locally once qualified.
  4. Service users with lived experience of receiving services in BCP or Dorset/advocates drawn from Wessex Region Local Authority contracted services and the impacts of practitioner retention in relation to use of these services.

This project runs between November 2022 and April 2024 and at time of writing (11/09/23), we are currently collecting and analysing qualitative data from over n=100 participants. 

More information on our project:

Dr Andy Pulman – apulman@bournemouth.ac.uk

https://ncpqsw.com/building-research-capacity-in-social-care/

https://www.arc-wx.nihr.ac.uk/research-areas-list/social-care%3A-local-authority-adult-social-care-recruitment-and-retention-research-project

Further viewing:

Pulman, A. 2023. NIHR ARC Wessex Social Care Lunchtime Seminar #2 – Building Research Capacity in Social Care.

Further reading:

Pulman, A. and Fenge, L.-A., 2023. Building Capacity for Social Care Research—Individual-Level and Organisational Barriers Facing Practitioners. The British Journal of Social Work.

Pulman, A. and Fenge, L.-A., 2023. Building Capacity for Social Care Research – Ways of Improving Research Skills for Social Workers. Social Work Education.

If you’d like to write a blog post to share your appreciation for our postdoctoral researchers, please contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk. You can also get involved on social media during Postdoc Appreciation Week by using #LovePostdocs and #NPAW2023 on Twitter and Instagram and tagging us @BU_Research or @UK_NPAW.

Introduction to Patient and Public Involvement

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics, Training

This half day course is an introduction to PPI and will:
1. Define PPI and why it matters
2. Explore the links between PPI and health equity
3. Explain how to deliver PPI and support those involved

It will be an interactive session, including input from someone with lived experience, talking about their involvement in research.

It will be delivered by Sue Bickler from the Involving People team at Help and Care, an organisation that ‘helps people and communities live the lives they choose’.

Sue has worked in the voluntary sector, local authorities, and health, and has substantial experience engaging with people and communities to ensure that services meet their needs.  Her current role brings together the four Healthwatch in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (HIOW), ensuring that patient voice is central to decision making in the HIOW Integrated Care System and that people are equipped to support effective Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).

The session is funded by Clinical Research Network Wessex and is open to all health and care researchers working in Wessex including public contributors and community organisations.

Book your place here.  A link to the online training will then be sent to you.

NIHR Be Part of Research platform

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

The NIHR Be Part of Research platform is an online service that makes it easy for research participants to find and take part in health and social care research. Participants may search for trials and studies taking place looking at certain health conditions and in locations accessible to them.

Clinical researchers may also make use of the service to extend their recruitment and widen their recruitment methods, as the platform has been designed to make it easier for researchers and potential study participants to find each other.

Using Be Part of Research to recruit participants

To use the service for your recruitment, the study must meet the following requirements:

  • Be funded or supported by the NIHR. This includes studies on the NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio.
  • Have Research Ethics Committee approval to use the service as a recruitment tool.
  • Have a dedicated point of contact such as a pre-screener or website for interested volunteers to engage with your research team.

Getting your study onto the Be Part of Research platform

Once your study has been registered on either ISRCTN, ClinicalTrials.gov, or on the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS), your project will then appear on Be Part of Research. Given those visiting the site are mostly patients and members of the public, medical and scientific terminology should be omitted when writing your study summary, with plain English used to ensure the information is accessible to a broad audience. In order to do this, you should:
  • Keep it short – but don’t oversimplify it. The reader must understand what the study is trying to achieve.
  • Imagine you are talking to the reader.
  • Take out any jargon.
  • Make sure you cover the what, why, when, where and how so they have the basics of your study.

Additionally, to make sure that participants contact the appropriate person, the contact details provided on ISRCTN or ClinicalTrials.gov should be up to date and accurate. In general, the registry record should be monitored continuously so that any changes are reflected on Be Part of Research as soon as possible.

Further support/contact

If you have any questions regarding the platform or regarding clinical research in general, please email Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor: swignall@bournemouth.ac.uk or clinicalresearch@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU’s ECR- Dr Rejoice Chipuriro awarded NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex grant to work with underserved communities in health and social care

Awarded & submitted bids, NHS

Dr Rejoice Chipuriro a Post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Social Science and Social Work has been awarded a grant from the NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex. The grant is aimed at generating new insights into asylums seekers’ lived experiences with community based mental health care support services. This study involves partnership between Bournemouth University and Vita Nova- a community arts organisation that supports people in recovery from addiction. Vita Nova works in a holistic way to support members with their ongoing recovery programs which helps to avoid relapse back into treatment centres, mental health institutions or prison.

In recent years Vita Nova has worked with other underserved communities including asylum seekers, for example the Refugee Nativity last Christmas with local asylum seekers which brought communities together and raised awareness of the current refugee crisis. Vita Nova uses creativity to process trauma as a form of art therapy. Asylum seekers will be supported by Vita Nova to co-produce drama and photography for public exhibition to connect with mental health service in community, as well as the public, to dispel stigma around mental health and marginalisation of asylum seekers. The photo exhibition will also be co-designed with asylum seekers as a way for participants to share about their lived experiences, and break taboos about mental health.

 

Talking about this new research Dr Rejoice Chipuriro shared the following, ‘Mental health is a priority area for the NHS. Asylum seekers are listed by the NIHR as an underserved group in health research which is why this research seeks to generate new knowledge about mental health which is co-produced with asylum seekers.’

Michael Armstrong the Creative Producer at Vita Nova had this to share , ‘ As we step into a new chapter, we’re reflecting on the journey that brought us here. Rooted in the centre of Boscombe, our charity has dedicated itself to empowering community members and artists alike for almost 25 years. Through a rich tapestry of events and projects, we’ve woven connections, shared stories, and nurtured creativity. The partnership with Bournemouth University advances our approach to evaluation and how we can capture the voices of some of the most vulnerable people in our wonderful community.’

Sharon Coyne, Artistic Director at Vita Nova says ‘our partnership with Bournemouth University really helps us think differently about how we communicate the experience of our wonderful members and engage new partners and (hopefully) new funders’.

Congratulations Rejoice!

Opportunity: NIHR Committee member development scheme

The NIHR is seeking to appoint members to their Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme committees as Committee Member Development Scheme (CMDS) Participants. They are one year development opportunities are for nurses and midwives currently at Band 6 or above, or in an equivalent academic role who have a good understanding and experience of front-line health and care practice. Read more information here.

Rollout of the online SoECAT and wording for funders guidance – FAO funders (and info for others)-This is really important for PI’s who are submitting an NIHR bid

The NIHR have released and fully tested a new online SoECAT over the last year and have already rolled it out across a number of funding streams. Following on from this rollout, it has been determined that the Excel SoECAT will no longer be made available for new applications beyond the end of March 2023 and that, for all phase 2 applications commencing after 1st April 2023, we would like you to help us encourage applicants to use the online system and to use the following wording within your application guidance:

Please be aware that if your planned project includes the recruitment of participants, your application should be accompanied with the Funder Export from the online SoECAT, obtainable via the NIHR Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS).

In order to create a SoECAT, you will need to create an account in CPMS. After creating the account, you will need to login to CPMS to activate this account. If any assistance is required in creating the account, please refer to our user guide. Once your account has been created and is active, you can proceed.

Guidance for the completion of the SoECAT by the applicant is present in the online tool to assist at each page and stage of the application process and further details can be found on the Online SoECAT Guidance page.

There is also an Online SoECAT Guidance Module which includes video tutorials and linked resources (an NIHR Learn account is required to access and enrol onto the module) and a helpful Study Representative – Online SoECAT Top Tips infographic.

 Please note that completion of the SoECAT may not be necessary when applying for funding to support: overarching programmes with no specific research study protocol, infrastructure, fellowships, anything where the grant is to be used for direct employment of a member of staff or purchase of an asset, and data or diagnostic reviews where recruitment data is not collected. Such applications should be submitted with supporting documentation to explain why a SoECAT was not submitted in this instance.

NIHR Grant Applications Seminar ONLINE – 22nd March 2023

NHS, REF Subjects, writing

  

Dear colleagues

– Do you have a great idea for research in health, social care or public health?
– Are you planning to submit a grant application to NIHR?

Our popular seminar continues online and will next take place on Wednesday 22nd March 2023 from 10.00am – 12.30pm.

The seminar provides an overview of NIHR funding opportunities and research programme remits, requirements and application processes. We will give you top tips for your application and answer specific questions with experienced RDS South West advisers.

We will also be hearing from Professor Mike Robling about the NIHR Policy Research Programme (PRP) . He will be giving an overview of the programme, the assessment process and what the funding panels are looking for.

We also have a limited number of 20-minute 1-to-1 appointments available after the seminar should you wish to discuss your proposed study with an RDS adviser.

Find out more and book a place.

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU)

We can help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

NIHR Bulletin

Funding opportunities, NHS

RDS NEWS

RDS Blog: Researcher, adviser, committee member – we’re all on the same side
The RDS blog this month looks at the many hats that our RDS advisers wear to support you develop the best application for submission to NIHR funding programmes. Find out more.

NIHR News

NIHR publishes its 2021-22 Annual Report
The NIHR has published its annual report and accounts, highlighting milestones and achievements during 2021/22. Find out more.

eBulletins and Newsletters

CRN West of England – AcoRD Specialist Update

NIHR ARCs Your Path in Research: January 2023,  New Year Special

NIHR Evidence: December 2022

NIHR News and Research: December 2022

 

Funding Opportunities

Latest NIHR funding calls

Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme
22/564 Evaluating the Efficacy of Metformin in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme
22/563 Evaluating new models of care for children and young people with excess weight and related complications

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme
23/1 Health Technology Assessment Programme researcher-led (primary research)
23/2 Health Technology Assessment Programme researcher-led (evidence synthesis)
23/3 NIHR NICE rolling call (HTA Programme)
23/4 NIHR James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships rolling call (HTA Programme)
23/6 Motor Neurone Disease (HTA Programme)

Public Health Research (PHR) Programme
Health Determinant Research Collaborations (HDRCs) – webinar on 1 February

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body or if you’re hoping to resubmit the panel can provide some excellent tips and feedback.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.