Professor Niroshan Siriwardena

How Research Design Services can help you secure research funding - A local perspective

Health related research is undertaken over a wide geographical area and often involves many academic and health professionals from disparate disciplines, professions and practice settings together with service users. A Research Design Service needs to be able to tailor its services to meet local needs, but also has to employ a critical mass of staff who can provide a full range of advice required across all disciplines, which places constrains on the organisation and geographical distribution of staff resources. This session will firstly outline the ways in which the NIHR RDS for the East Midlands works with and provides services for researchers who are geographically remote from the main RDS hubs of Leicester and Nottingham - Lincolnshire will be used as specific example. The presenter will also use his own experiences to illustrate how the special research design needs of specific groups of researchers can be supported by the Research Design Service.

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Biography:
Professor Niroshan Siriwardena is a general practitioner and Foundation Professor in Primary Care at the University of Lincoln. His research is aimed at improving the quality of primary and pre-hospital healthcare. Niro leads and collaborates on a number of research studies involving health services with funding from the National Institute for Health Research, Department of Health and the Health Foundation. He has published on quality improvement in primary and pre-hospital settings, evidence-based practice and performance assessment. He is editor of Quality in Primary Care, an international journal for quality improvement and is lead in Lincolnshire for the NIHR RDS-EM.

Freya Tyrer and Paul Leighton

NIHR Research Design Service for the East Midlands - Construction a Bid

Most research funding applications in health and social care are subject to competition and include a peer review process. With limited funds available, many will not be successful. Reviewers usually include both experts in the field and lay people who critique the proposal and comment on its strengths and weaknesses. They will be asked to consider a number of factors about the proposal, which often include: (i) originality; (ii) relevance to the funding body; (iii) practical importance and significance; (iv) feasibility and quality; (v) value for money; and (vi) dissemination strategy. Most NIHR funding bodies will also ask reviewers to comment on patient and public involvement in the study design. This presentation will discuss issues to consider when developing grant applications and tips for success.

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Biography:
Freya Tyrer joined the University of Leicester in 2004 from the MRC Clinical Trials Unit in London, and has a number of years experience working on large-scale epidemiological studies using disease registers and general practice databases. In her role as Advice Team Lead for the Leicester base of the NIHR RDS EM, she has worked on several projects destined for the Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme, other NIHR funding streams and national peer-reviewed competitions, and has a particular interest in mental health and intellectual disability.

Paul Leighton is a Research Fellow in Qualitative Methods. He is a sociologist by background who has an interest in the application of concepts such as social exclusion and social care research and service delivery. Paul also has an interest in community research and the development of the community as an important concept in social and healthcare provision. Paul has been involved in the evaluation of a number of local Sure Start programmes in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and is currently, with colleagues, editing a book about the Sure Start experience. His 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 Centers in the Midlands and North-west England. Paul has a particular interest in the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of qualitative research and can offer support more broadly in the process of qualitative research.

Professor Claire Anderson

Research for Patient Benefit Programme - How to improve your chances of getting funding - things the panel will need to see

As the Chair of the RfPB Commissioning Panel for the East Midlands, Claire will be discussing in the form of a checklist the sort of things the Panel look for when considering RfPB applications.

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Biography:
Professor Claire Anderson is Professor of Social Pharmacy in the Division of Social Research in Medicines and Health at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, where she is Director of the interdisciplinary Centre for Social Research in Health and Healthcare. She is immediate past president of the Academic Section of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). She is working in the WHO/UNESCO/FIP Pharmacy Education Taskforce and is leading on academic and institutional capacity. Claire also chaired the recent PIP BPP working group on the pharmacy workforce. She is the international Associate Editor of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and sits on the editorial boards of a number or other Journals. Her major research interest is the role of community pharmacists in improving the health of the public. Claire has published over 90 refereed papers, one book, five book chapters and numerous conference abstracts. Perhaps the most important piece of research she has produced is the strategic research for the Department of Health in England, investigating pharmacists' broader public health role, which was used to inform government policy. She was a member of a research group awarded the Department of Health Policy Unit contract to evaluate supplementary prescribing by nurses and pharmacists and is currently on another group undertaking a National Health Service funded study researching patients' reporting on adverse drug reactions.

Photography by Nick Osborne www.osbornephotography.co.uk (07739 035923)