Healthcare staff talk about scheme that supports them to take up research

A new video is encouraging hospital staff to get involved with research to enrich their careers and help improve patient care.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in partnership with Imperial College London aims to expand research opportunities for all healthcare professionals at the Trust, especially nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. This is because these health professionals bring different perspectives on care and so their input into research could lead to better patient outcomes and experiences.

The Imperial Research Fellowships scheme was set up in 2009 and gives all healthcare professionals at the Trust the opportunity to take a year out of clinical practice and focus on a research project supervised by academics at Imperial College London.  Recipients also have the opportunity to develop their research skills and experience so that they can apply for a Masters or PhD and progress in their clinical academic career.

The fellowships are worth up to £65,000 and are jointly funded by Imperial Health Charity and Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

In the video above, staff including Professor Waljit Dhillo, Professor in Endocrinology & Metabolism, and Dr Caroline Alexander, Lead Clinical Academic for Therapies talk about the programme and how it is bringing benefits to patients.

The video also features staff at the Trust who have received research fellowships, talking about the projects they carried out and the lessons they’ve learned.

This work is carried out as part of Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), a partnership between Imperial College London and three NHS Trusts.

Applications for the next funding round of research fellowships closes on Thursday 31 January 2019.  More information on the research fellowships can be found on the Imperial Health Charity’s and the BRC’s pages.