Wessex Clinical Academic Career
Programme:
Team Research Award 2016/7 (Pilot)
Information and application process
For further information contact:
Dr Clare Mander – Clinical Academic Career and Research Lead
E. [email protected]
T. 01962 718 461
#HEEWessexCAC
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Team Research Award 2016/7
Introduction:
Health Education England (HEE) Wessex has £50,000 to pilot new team research awards in
2016/17. The aim of these awards is to enable small teams of healthcare professionals (from any
professional background) to work in collaboration on or towards an applied clinical research project.
Some members of the team must work in practice for at least one day per week for an organisation
who provides NHS healthcare within Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset or Salisbury.
It is anticipated that three awards of £15,000 will be offered. In addition to this funding, two events
will be hosted for the successful applicants – one at the start to launch the awards and one at the
end to close the awards. These events will be compulsory for all of the team members to jointly
attend. Each team will also be allocated a team coach who will act as an additional point of support
throughout the award.
Background:
With the increasing movement towards exciting and innovative integrated models of care, there is a
growing need to study the impact of new models of care. Multi-source and multidisciplinary team
research is needed to provide evidence of outcomes to inform future models of care.
It is anticipated that there will be a number of key benefits of providing a team research award;
1. Some healthcare professionals may find it difficult to take the first-steps with applied clinical
research. However, the prospect of engaging in team-level research may be a less daunting
step
2. Better synergy between clinical research and quality improvement programmes that already
exist within the team or service
3. Promotion of interdisciplinary working across healthcare professionals
4. Greater uptake of research findings at a team or service level due to wider workforce
involvement.
To date, the HEE and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) integrated clinical academic
awards have been open to individual applicants and have been primarily aimed at supporting
individual clinical academic career aspirations. Clinical academics are clinically active health
researchers. They work in health and social care as clinicians to improve, maintain, or recover
health while in parallel researching new ways of delivering better outcomes for the patients they
treat and care for (Building a Research Career, NIHR 2016).
Expected outputs from the team research awards:
These awards are aimed at being a stepping stone to future clinical academic and/or quality
improve work either at the individual or team level. Following the award, team members maybe
interested in going onto applying to the HEE/NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Programme
(http://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/nihr-hee-ica-programme.htm) or it may strengthen their position to
access research funding from within their organisation.
The outputs from these awards will in part depend on the previous clinical academic experience of
the team members. For example, for an existing team who are already research active, it may be an
opportunity to carry out additional primary research as a team, or the focus could be on the
implementation of previous research findings. However, if the team is new to applied clinical
research then the award would offer an introduction into aspects of clinical research such as
conducting a literature review, supporting patient and public involvement, write a research proposal
for further research funding etc.
Who can be part of the research team?
A flexible and open inclusion criterion has been selected for this pilot award to encourage applicants
to consider new models of working and to think creatively about healthcare partnership outside of
day-to-day practice.
The team can be NHS healthcare professionals (within Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset or
Salisbury) who currently work together in the same clinical service, or it can be a group of
healthcare professionals that work in different parts of the service or even for different organisations.
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Team Research Award 2016/7
If the team members come from different organisations, one NHS organisation would be required to
act as the host organisation.
The team may also open up opportunities for the pre-registered workforce to engage in clinical
research; which in turn could enable earlier talent spotting and workforce developments. In addition,
patients and public members may also form part of the team to build a community of inclusive
practice through co-researching.
The team size needs to be between 3 and 8 people.
How much is the team research award and how can the funding be used?
Each successful team will be awarded up to £15,000, however the host organisation and/or partners
may also wish to make additional contributes. The spending plan can be tailored to enable the team
to achieve their clinical academic objectives.
Suggestions on how the budget can be spent are presented below;
1. Clinical backfill across the team - it is recognised that this may form the main budget
expenditure. The most efficient backfill arrangements can be decided by the team/service. If
more than one organisation is involve the host would be require to manage funding across
the team.
2. Research project expenses – this could include anything related to the applied research
objectives of the team from reference management systems, digital voice records, dictation
services, patient and public involvement expenses etc.
3. Academic supervision and formal teaching – it is important for the team to have academic
supervision throughout the award. It is recommended that academic supervision costs do not
exceed 20% of the overall spending plan. In addition to academic supervision, it may also be
appropriate to access formal teaching on research methods depending on the objectives of
the award.
4. Dissemination costs – an essential element of the award is to disseminate the findings
through publications and/or conference presentations. Therefore the award can be used to
fund conference or publication costs.
It is recommended that the spending plans are checked by finance teams prior to submission.
Evaluation
Brief progress reports will be required on a 3-monthly basis and an evaluation will be completed at
the end of the award.
Application process:
Please submit a completed checklist (see Appendix 1 and 2) and all corresponding documentation
to: [email protected]
Closing date for applications: 12noon Monday 23 May 2016
Interviews (Southern House, Otterbourne): Monday 13 June 2015 (provisionally booked)
Applicants who choose to apply must be available for interview on the above date. A minimum of 2
and maximum of 4 members of the team will be expected to attend.
The amount awarded will be paid directly to the host organisation.
Award period: July 2016-March 2017
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Team Research Award 2016/7
Appendix 1: Team Research Award – Checklist
Team Name:
Title of research:
Main team-member to be contacted for all E.
future correspondence:
T.
Criteria
Evidence
submitted
(yes/no)
1. Team summary form (see Appendix 2)
2. Cover letter (on headed paper) including;
a) Reason for applying for the team research award and capability to continue clinical
academic work after the award.
b) Summary of the team, including reasons for applying for the award and what
relevant clinical academic skills and experience team members will bring.
c) An overview of the benefits and learning which will be gained by undertaking this
award
d) Outcomes that will be achieved by the end of the award
e) Ability to complete the award by March 2017
4. Declaration of support from an Executive Director on behalf of the host
organisation who will support your team during this award (on headed paper)
5. Letter of support from clinical academic supervisor (on headed paper)
6. A detailed spending plan for a maximum £15,000 budget and details of any
addition financial support from the host organisation (if applicable).
I can confirm that we meet the criteria for a team research award and we have submitted all of the
evidence described above;
Signed (by the main team-member): …………………………………………………………………….
Date: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Appendix 2: Team summary form
Team name:
Name of team-member to be contacted for all future correspondence regarding this application:
Please list name, job role and email address of all Team Members:
Name:
Job Role:
Email address and phone number:
Name of organisation(s) which employs the team members:
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Team Research Award 2016/7
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