Developing research careers for healthcare staff – NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre

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 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 the university. 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 the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

In the video, 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 have 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 close on 31 January 2019. More information on the research fellowships can be found on the Imperial Health Charity’s website.