The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded three year programme will champion research, innovate and drive improvements in future care.

Enrique Castro-Sanchez, the Lead Academic Research Nurse at the Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) and Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is one of the 2 Imperial academics selected to the NIHR 70@70 Senior Nurse and Midwife Research Leader programme, which formally launched on 9th May in London. The 3-year programme aims to increase the research capacity of nurses and midwives across England to lead and conduct research that benefits the professions and addresses key societal problems.

Over the next three years Enrique will support the delivery of the local research agenda at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, increasing the number of Trust nurses leading research projects and competitive research funding applications, and facilitating research focused on the needs of the population served by the Academic Health Science Network.

Enrique is keen to develop projects in health literacy, behavioural research in appropriate use of antibiotics, workforce developments and nurse-sensitive outcomes that leverage his interest and expertise in these areas. He will also translate his experience in the 70@70 programme through existing international collaborations at Imperial to learn about implementation and dissemination challenges.

The event was attended by the seventy candidates selected nationwide and included presentations by members of the NIHR Dissemination Centre as well as a keynote by Ruth May, the Chief Nursing Office for England, and who outlined the contribution of the programme to NHS and NIHR priorities. In addition to actions at local level, the 70@70 leaders will work together in geographical hubs to support each other, learn from innovations and interventions implemented locally, and increase the overall impact of the programme.”