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Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Director of the NIHR Research Design Service for the East Midlands
Heather is a medically trained epidemiologist with research methodology expertise. Before joining Trent RDSU (now NIHR RDS EM) she worked for 20 years for the Medical Research Council’s Institute of Hearing Research. Heather's research experience is based around the epidemiological study of all aspects of permanent childhood hearing impairment and her MD was a study of hearing impairment following bacterial meningitis in children. Her current research interests are in health technology assessment broadly and specifically in screening services, child health and audiology. Details of current research collaborations and publications can be found on the Nottingham University staff webpages.
Heather is currently also the Executive Director of the NIHR National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing based in Ropewalk House in Nottingham. This is one of 16 Biomedical Research Units established with initial funding for four years by NIHR to deliver on the translational research agenda.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Director of the NIHR Research Design Service for the East Midlands (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire)
Sarah is an associate professor in medical statistics and has worked in the unit since the Trent Institute for Health Services Research was established. She has provided statistical support to a wide range of studies but has a particular interest in randomised controlled trials.
Research Advisors
Funding Streams
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Senior Research Fellow
Jane has worked to support researchers in the East Midlands for the past 10 years; based in Nottingham she has focused this support in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire and more recently in Derbyshire. Jane brings to her role both academic and NHS management experience. Her research expertise might be described as “having a very broad based understanding of research needs in the NHS especially in primary health care”, drawing on personal research experiences and methodologies used in the disciplines of Biological Sciences, Continuing Education and Health Promotion.
Jane is an active qualitative researcher, currently working with the NIHR programme of research on Medical Crises in the Elderly, Led by Professor John Gladman and The REST project funded by the Health Foundation led by Professor Niro Siriwardena. Jane generally focuses her research to studies where she works along side primary care researchers and practitioners who are employed by the NHS, contributing understanding of both setting and skills.
Jane currently chairs the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire Lincolnshire Research Alliance and also sits on several NHS Trust research strategy groups. She is a member of the UKCRN Primary Care Research Network for East Midlands and South Yorkshire .
Jane works with the team in the Nottingham base of the RDS to give advice on funding; in particular applications to RfPB; refining research questions, appropriate designs , qualitative methodology and issues pertaining to primary care research such as recruitment and retention.
I am also involved in the training that can be provided by the RDS
Patient and Public Involvement
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Research Fellow in Qualitative Methods
Paul is a Research Fellow in Qualitative Methods who joined the Trent RDSU in March 2007. He is a sociologist by background who has an interest in the application of concepts such as social exclusion and social capital to health and social care research and service delivery. Paul also has an interest in community research and the development of community as an important concept in social and healthcare provision. Prior to joining the RDSU Paul was based in the School of Nursing, University of Nottingham where he was involved in the evaluation of a number of local Sure Start programmes in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. He was part of team who organised a successful national Sure Start conference (Learning form Sure Start – a national conference of local evaluation, Nottingham, June 2006 ), and is currently, with colleagues, editing a book about the Sure Start experience (Schneider, Avis & Leighton (2007), Jessica Kingsley Publishing). Paul’s current research activity is focused upon the delivery of multi-agency social and healthcare support to families, with a specific interest in the transition from Sure Start local programmes to Children’s Centres in a number of geographic sites in the Midlands and North-west of England. Paul has a particular interest in the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of qualitative research and can offer support and training in these areas. He can also offer training and support more broadly in the process of qualitative research – from research design and planning, to methods of data collection and data handling, and the principles and practice of data analysis.
Statisticians and other Quantitative Methodologists
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Clinical Senior Lecturer
Paul is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the NIHR RDS East Midlands, University of Nottingham and also act as Medical Advisor to the Trent Cancer Registry for 2 days/week. He has degrees in biochemistry and medicine, and trained originally as a histopathologist, but later moved into epidemiology and medical statistics, gaining master's degrees in both subjects. From July ‘01 to June ‘03 Paul was seconded as a Consultant Biostatistician to PAREXEL Ltd (a large Contract Research Organisation) where he worked on the design of several RCTs and provided training. Paul has been a reviewer for articles submitted to various learned journals, including: Gut, British Journal of Cancer, Histopathology, J Epidemiol Comm Health, J Public Health Medicine, Public Health, Statistics in Medicine, Applied Statistics, and Journal of Pathology. In addition he was until 2009 a member of the Trent Multicentre Research Ethics Committee and was also previously a member of the training subcommittee of PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry).
Qualitative Researchers
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Lecturer/Research Capacity Building Coordinator
After undertaking her undergraduate degree in Behavioural Sciences, Dawn then completed an MSc in Research Methodology and Statistics in Psychology at Bristol. Her thesis looked at memory function in Alzheimer’s disease. Upon completing this, Dawn then went to work as a research assistant on the Epidemiology of Psychosis in Childhood study at the University of Nottingham where she also started her part-time PhD. Dawn has now finished her PhD titled, ‘Cognitive function in early-onset psychosis’ and is in the process of disseminating the findings and applying for grants. Dawn started work for the former Trent Institute for Health Services Research at the end of 2002 where she organises and lectures on the courses run by the Trent RDSU while continuing to develop research in her own interest area.
Professional Activities
- Organising and designing the short course programme
- Supervising dissertations (including PhD)
- Consultancy
- Member of the British Psychological Society
- Lecturing
Research Interests
- Mental Illness
- Cognitive Function
- Systematic Reviews
- Survey design
- Consumers Involved in Research
- Health Psychology
- Complimentary Medicine
- Innovative research methodologies, e.g. on-line, virtual worlds, etc.
- Mixed methods: both quantitative and qualitative
Health Economist
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Organizations and Partnerships Coordinator
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Coordinator, Organisations & Partnerships
This post is designed to facilitate the development and continuation of strong research partnerships and collaborations primarily between NHS organizations and researchers. The remit of this post is developing to fit the new role of RDS. It will ensure that the RDS has good working links with trusts and that the advice we offer in the design stages of research bids takes account of the NHS context within which it takes place.
Within the former Trent RDSU Gill has worked extensively with NHS Primary Care Organizations in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire and chair the Regional Primary Care Research Leads Group. Gill is also Facilitator for the national Primary & Social Care Working Group of the NHS R&D Forum and through this Group she has contributed to the development of the Forum Research Governance Tool Kit for Primary Care Trusts and developed the Research Governance Documentation and Information Guide.
Gill is co-developer of ARC (Auditing Research Capacity), an evidence-based tool for measuring research capacity development in organizations and a primary care recruitment resource based on evidence from the literature – PROSPeR.
Gill has a clinical background in Speech & Language Therapy and 6 years research management experience in the NHS.
Administrators
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Ginny provides general administrative support to the RDS - EM, Nottingham. .
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Administrator
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Administrator
Karen provides part time administrative support within the Nottingham Unit. The work has a mainly organisational content responding to general issues and administrative matters primarily supporting Gill Sarre, Primary Care Organisation Co-ordinator with the Primary Care Research Leads Group, Dawn-Marie Walker, Research Capacity Building Coordinator with the Nottingham Short Course Training Programme and other staff regarding training.
Key Tasks
- Organising and servicing the Research Education Group Meeting, the PCT (PCRLG) Leads Meeting and the Research Activity and Collaboration Group Meeting.
- Event organising, providing administrative support to staff, taking bookings from delegates and preparing materials/delegate packs for workshops and seminars.
- Producing promotional materials for all training initiatives using Word and PowerPoint.
- Developing and maintaining databases.
- Organising large mail shots for RDS activities.
- Developing and maintaining filing systems, office based and computerised.
- Dealing with general enquiries.
- Liaison with the Leicester RDS and members of associated organisations.
Karen joined the organisation in April 1995 where she worked part time and part time for the Division of Primary Care Research Support Unit as a Clerical Research Assistant.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Administrator
Joanne joined Trent RDSU (formerly Trent Institute) on a full time basis in 1997 in the role of course administrator/secretary, then progressed to the Administrator for the Nottingham unit of Trent Institute. She was appointed as Unit Administrator for Trent RDSU (Nottingham) in May 2005 and her main responsibilities are: