GROW Objectives and Impacts

Aims and objectives of GROW

Evaluation

Components of GROW

History of GROW

The goals of the GROW Programme are to enable early career researchers in mental health to:

work on their professional goals;
be part of a network of early career mental health researchers who can support each other during the programme and beyond;
be supported to achieve their goals in a fully funded programme;
develop professional networks, skills and experience to work across sectors and disciplines and make a difference through mental health and addictions research.

To provide the basis for our evaluation of the of the GROW programme we conduct:

a pre-programme survey;
a post programme survey, completed after the final session;
a six month follow-up survey.

Each survey has four ranking questions with numerical outputs. These questions are the same across all survey timepoints to enable scores to be compared pre- and post-programme. There were also long form qualitative questions. The post programme surveys have nine questions based around their individual experiences of the programme, including coaching and what worked and what didn’t work in the programme.

When producing an evaluation report, there are two main parts to the evaluation of the impact, success and feedback. The first is a basic investigation of the quantitative data from the first four questions for the end of programme and followup survey. This is performed on SPSS. The second is an analysis of the long form responses to the free text questions. This is conducted anonymously and done by reading through all answers and pulling out the key comments for each section which expressed an outcome or feeling. The aim of these two processes was to evaluate the work we did with the participants in the cohort to learn from our delivery in advance of developing the programme for the next cohort.

1 to 1 coaching sessions to identify and work on your own professional development goals.
Peer networking and support.
Opportunities to meet and connect with senior researchers/PIs.
Participation in the GROW Gathering, a one day meeting with other GROW alumni in attendance. Sessions will be run by alumni and coaches.
Monthly virtual workshops on topics such as:
- working across disciplines and sectors;
- making an impact – working with policy and practice;
- securing funding;
- collaborating with patients and the public in research;
- looking to the future of mental health research.

The GROW Programme first started in 2022 as part of the Emerging Minds network. The original cohort was comprised entirely of researchers focusing on children's and young people's mental health from England. The second cohort, the first official GROW Programme one, was opened up to all mental health researchers within England, with the third cohort opening to applications from mental health researchers in the United Kingdom.

In 2024 the remit of the MHR Incubator and therefore the GROW Programme expanded further to include support for addiction researchers alongside mental health researchers. There is often considerable overlap between these two fields. Addiction researchers have a lot to offer mental health researchers, and vice versa.

To date we have had 308 applications to the GROW Programme over 4 cohorts, and have supported a total of 75 early career researchers.

When selecting researchers for the GROW programme aim to bring together a diverse group of researchers who are all tackling mental health issues from different angles. Our aim is to provide participants with new connections, tools, and insights into their research area by learning from others and contributing their experience as well.

In addition, we are aiming to connect researchers across the United Kingdom, particularly focusing on researchers working in areas and institutions currently under represented in mental health and now addiction research.

An overview of the demographics of the 75 GROW participants as of 2024, is seen in the charts below.

The statistics for profession/academic area represent cohorts 2, 3 and 4. The statistics for geographic location are for all four cohorts.

We approach assessment of impact with qualitative and quantitative surveys, and anecdotal feedback. Below is a chart tracking the responses to the first four survey questions through time:

Q4 - I feel I am working towards clear professional goals.
Q5 - I feel part of a supportive network with my peers in mental health research across the UK.
Q6 - I feel confident and able to work across sectors and disciplines.
Q7 - I have the networks, skills and experience to make a difference to children & young people's mental health.

We also use softer measures of impact which are individual and hard to quantify. For example, we are in touch with all alumni and often get reports of career direction changes which have come about as a result of the confidence GROW, specifically the coaching element, has provided to help people achieve their aims within the mental health research field.

Increasing impact

As a result of our evaluation process, we have identified the coaching sessions as one of the key parts of the programme which participants felt really had a positive impact on their career development. In the first cohort we have therefore increased the coaching offer from four to five sessions, and have provided alumni with the opportunity to have follow-up coaching sessions. This is something we are keen to continue going forward.

We have also acted on the incredible impact we have seen of participants being part of a supportive network of peers. In 2023 we introduced our GROW Gathering. This was an in person meeting in London including the current cohort at the time and as many alumni as wished to / were able to attend. This was the first time cohorts had mingled and was successful, generating future work connections. We will be holding the event again in 2024.

GROW Objectives and Impacts

GROW Programme: objectives and impact

GROW demographics

Impact

Increasing impact

Testimonials from our GROW programme alumni

Evaluation Reports