Research Department
Welcome to the Research Department. Our team is led by an Associate Director of R&I, a Head of R&I, and a Lead Research Nurse Manager. We have dedicated Research Nurses, Clinical Studies Officers, Research coordinators, and Administrators who support recruitment to studies with knowledge, experience and absolute professionalism.
We are largely funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The expectation is that we recruit service users, carer’s and NHS staff members to what is known as NIHR Portfolio studies and Commercial studies. Portfolio studies are those that are on the NIHR portfolio database. They will have been peer reviewed and therefore be deemed as important and relevant research studies. Commercial studies quite often, but not always, test different drugs for different conditions. The studies are developed by commercial companies. The role of the Trust is to recruit as many people as possible to portfolio and commercial studies to improve practices within the NHS, which ultimately results in better patient care.
Our success over the years has led to team growth, an increase in participants and staff taking part in research, an increase in funding because we have performed exceptionally well, and a change in service practices.
Our mission is to further embed a culture of research and innovation into the Trust to improve services that will benefit both service users, their carer’s, and the Trust staff.
What we do:
Research studies are very important when changing practices, and we want all our services to be delivered using practice that is based on research. Our dedicated Research team recruit service users and/or their carer’s, and Trust staff to research studies within our Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust. These studies are developed by universities and trusts nationwide, and by staff from within our Trust. The main areas are Mental Health, Dementia and Learning Disabilities. Examples of current studies can be found using this link: Link
Support:
As a team we have great relationships with clinicians within the Trust who support our studies. They do this by identifying potential service users for specific studies, and in some cases by becoming a research study lead known as a Principal Investigator.
We support academic clinicians in developing their research, obtaining the relevant permissions, and employing Research Assistants to work on their studies. We have also engaged with staff interested in becoming a Research Champion who promote our studies to their co-workers.
How to get involved:
We are extremely keen to give service users, their carer’s, and Trust staff the chance to find out about our research activity, and to encourage them to take part. Please contact the Research Department by emailing researchteam@covwarkpt.nhs.uk.
If you’re a member of staff for the Trust, or another professional interested in finding out more about research opportunities, you are likely to find our Annual Research Event useful to attend. Watch out for our promotional emails.
You can also attend our online training sessions geared towards becoming a Principal Investigator and therefore leading a research study. More inforamtion is available on our Researchers and Professionals page.
Learning from research
Reporting the outcomes and results of projects is just as important as conducting the research itself as it can result in shared learning across services. Visit our publications page to see a list of publications by our staff members.
Also, read our Research Team newsletters. Each monthly edition of our newsletter includes abstracts of completed research projects, details of upcoming projects, and helpful information for researchers.