Occupational Therapist, Domna Salonen took over on #WorldMentalHealth day and #AHPsDay 2022 in her week @MHRincubator! Catch up on the great many insights she offers on what a joint clinical and academic career can be like.
The combination of clinical psychologists’ therapeutic expertise and research training means that they are in an ideal position to be conducting high-quality research projects. However, despite these skills and the documented benefits of research to services and service users, research activity in practice remains low. This article aims to give an overview of the advantages of, and difficulties in conducting research in clinical practice.
Funding for the 2023 GROW programme is now confirmed. The application window opens in February 2023.
Mental Health Research Matters is a national campaign on why mental health research matters, what good mental health research looks like and how we can all play our part in making a difference. The four key campaign themes – centering lived experience, inclusive research that tackles inequalities, multidisciplinary research and partnership working – are central…
Post-doctoral opportunities for mental health researchers at NIHR: the DSE award provides a maximum of 1 year of funding for post-doctoral NIHR Academy Members to gain skills and experience for the next phase of their research career. Find out more on NIHR webpage.
WWCSC is particularly interested in applications in the area of children and young people’s mental health.
The Medical Research Foundation is co-funding mental health research to enhance our understanding of the biological, psychological and social causes of eating disorders, to help improve treatments and prevention strategies. Mandatory expressions of interest by 6 October. https://www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/new-collaborations-to-support-eating-disorders-research
The PhD Programme in Mental Health Research for Health Professionals, based at King’s College London and funded by the Wellcome Trust is now open for applications. The closing date is 1 December 2022. Watch Professors Matthew Hotopf, Sandrine Thuret and Alan Simpson from King’s College London talk about the Programme in this video by The…
The NIHR Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (DLAF) scheme supports individuals based within local authorities and supporting services to undertake fully funded PhDs. It’s a fantastic opportunity for social workers and others based in local authorities to build on their existing experience make a difference through research. These fully funded doctoral fellowships allow awardees to retain…
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is providing opportunities for individuals working in local authority settings to undertake short placements to enhance their careers and develop skills and capabilities to co-create research that is more meaningful and better connected with practice. The placements include funding of up to £15,000 per individual and…
New NIHR funding call for research into improving access and use of services for people with speech, language, and communication needs recognises a really important area for mental health research to engage in. Funding call webpage
How can local authority staff be supported to implement evidence-based practices for mental health? – by supporting the existing staff to become research-active themselves! Rachel Murphy joined one of the first cohorts of practitioner researchers on the Pre-Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship last year. Here she explains the amazing professional development she has gained from the…
Here’s a broad outline of Wellcome Trust funding calls that are scheduled to launch in the next two years. Winter 2022: Focus on proposals that will enable stratification in relation to anxiety, depression, or psychosis Summer 2023: Consider developmental pathways to anxiety, depression, and psychosis Winter 2023: Focus on unlocking the potential of neuroscience to…
The inequalities we see in the mental health of different communities also play out in the experiences of researchers trying to investigate these. In the latest conversation in the Talking About series, Dr Dawn Edge and Dr Elizabeth Camacho share experiences of the challenges of pursuing their research interests which have been historically underfunded. They…
The NIHR is looking to appoint a registered Allied Health Professional (AHP) to support the delivery of an Allied Health Professions Research Summit commissioned by Health Education England (HEE). NIHR would aim to hold the summit in November 2022 and will pay the pro-rated amount of the individual’s salary to their employer for the duration…
The Local Authority Short Placement Award for Research Collaboration (LA SPARC) offers awards of up to £15,000 per individual and provides opportunities for both individuals working in Local Authority settings and NIHR Academy members to undertake placements and move between NIHR and LAs in either direction. The aim of the award is to provide opportunities…
NIHR Programme Development Grants for developing innovative, inclusive and diverse public partnerships will launch on 27 July 2022. This is a great opportunity for mental health researchers looking to further work with community & charity partners. The NIHR recently recorded a webinar about the call which you can watch here:
ECRs – are you getting the support you need from your managers?
We are delighted to announce the first cohort of the GROW Researcher Development Programme. Our 18 early career researchers are deliberately a very diverse group – with interests varying from perinatal to older adults; from individuals, to families and carers, to public health and service development. Addressing intrenched inequalities in mental health has emerged as…
Save the date – it’s the SMaRteN final showcase! The week commencing Monday 31 October 2022, the Student Mental Health Research Network – SMaRteN will have a week long schedule of activity as a final project showcase. SMaRteN focuses on Student Mental Health in Higher Education. Working with researchers with a range of expertise and…
The NIHR 3 Schools programme is inviting applications for its next round of fellowship funding. The closing date is 12 noon on Thursday 28 July 2022. Applications are invited from health and care professionals working in mental health but without a strong track record of mental health research (including but not limited to social work,…
NIHR Doctoral Training Camp virtual sessions will be held via Zoom on Tuesday 5 July 2022, 12.30 – 17.30 and this virtual element of the camp is open to all.
Listen to two peer researchers in mental health talk about their experience working on studies through the UCL loneliness and social isolation network. We’re delighted to share in celebrating the successes of the UKRI UCL loneliness network. Their great work and achievements over the last few years owes a great deal to meaningful collaborations with lived experience experts.
The many achievements, resources and connections created by the fantastic MARCH network are available for mental health researchers who have interests in the role of social, cultural and community assets. The MARCH network set out to transform our understanding of how social, cultural and community assets support mental health. Their legacy website is a go-to…
Many clinical academics have followed a non-standard path in their academic work. Dr Vivienne Curtis, Dr Kate Saunders, Dr Shruti Garg and Dr Oli Sparasci shared advice and tips on all the options available to psychiatry trainees. Do check out the presentation slides, Q&A questions and links to a useful whatsapp group on the Royal…
Are you a health or social care professional or a researcher planning a quality improvement or implementation science project? Would you like advice on how to evaluate your project or on how implementation science methods can improve the chance of your project being successful? Do consider checking out the advice clinic service offered by quality…
The patient and public members of our judging panels were so impressed by the standard of entries for the MHR Incubator Awards. Here we’re delighted to share some of their comments on our award winners.
Judges awarded top prizes to Dr Dean Connolly and the ‘Rethinking Education: lessons from lockdown’ Special Interest Research Group for the Collaborative Involvement of patients and public prize. In a competitive field, judges made five other runner up awards to projects which also had outstanding PPI. The winning projects – all demonstrating exemplary PPI in…
The award-winning work focuses attention on the experiences of people whose particular circumstances and needs are less well captured in the mainstream of mental health research. The neglected yet important areas our winners are addressing includes mental health in adoptive families, people with severe intellectual impairments, experiences in racialised groups.
Judges awarded the Innovation prize to two researchers who are tackling two very different areas of mental health research in new and original ways. Dr Lucy Livingston researches the understudied phenomenon of ‘compensation’ in autism, and Dr Ben Perry’s work focuses on physical health risks in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. There was a clear consensus…
Congratulations go to Dr Kimberley Kendall for her work in understanding depression and schizophrenia, and the ‘Bold’ project team, whose work is positively impacting the wellbeing of people who are living with dementia.
This 75-minute webinar is aimed at researchers applying for NIHR Fellowship Awards and staff accountable for public involvement. The webinar will cover: • NIHR’s definition of public involvement • UK Standards for Public Involvement in Research • Guidance on co-producing a research project • The support Research Design Service (RDS) provides for researchers in regards…
The application window for the summer 2022 cohort of the GROW programme has now closed. Applicants will be contacted about the outcome of their application in the coming weeks. GROW is the professional development programme designed for early career researchers in mental health. Through the programme, participants will build a cross-disciplinary professional network to inspire…
Wellcome has released new mental health research funding opportunities. They are funding a broad range of research to understand how anxiety, depression and psychosis develop and how they resolve.
Applications are now open. Who can apply: Early-career researchers Funding period: 3 years Funding amount: up to £225,000 Research area: Premature mortality, namely suicide and comorbidities Application deadline: 29th April. This MQ Fellows Award will have the theme “Gone too Soon”. People affected by mental illness and mental distress die too soon; their lives are scandalously short. Suicide is one contributing factor. However, a major reason is the close link between…
View the spring 2022 MHR Incubator news online. You can sign up to the newsletter via the link in the orange box at the top right corner of our homepage.
The NIHR SPHR Public Mental Health Network aims to bring together researchers, public health professionals and members of the public to share research findings and provide opportunities to work together on mental health initiatives. It’s based in the NIHR School of Public Health Research (SPHR) but it is open to anyone interested to join, including:…
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) ARC Mental Health Implementation Network (MHIN) is a collaboration of service users, local communities, health and care providers, commissioners and a range of regional and national stakeholders, including charities and local government.
In her week at the helm of the MHR Incubator account, Joy championed mental health researchers like her who are open about their lived experience. She offers some really great insight about what it’s like to be part of a research team and shares some really useful tips too. Read more about her lively week!
