Toolkit for managers to support Early Career Researchers
Bea ShelleyECRs – are you getting the support you need from your managers?
All posts by Bea Shelley
Communications coordinator for the Mental Health Research Incubator and the Emerging Minds Network.
Announcing our 2022 GROW programme participants
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…
Smarten final showcase – 31 Oct-Fri 4 Nov 2022
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…
Mental health research fellowships – NIHR 3 Schools
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 – join intro session free online
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.
Being a peer researcher in the UKRI Loneliness and social isolation in mental health network
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.
MARCH network’s legacy website
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…
Academic psychiatry careers webinar 2022
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…
Advice clinic: Implementation science
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…
#MHRawards – what our judges had to say
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.
Collaborative involvement prize: Dr Dean Connolly and Rethinking Education SIRG
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…
Building research in underserved areas: Dr Rebecca Anthony
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.
Innovation prize: Dr Lucy Livingston and Dr Ben Perry
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…
Early impact prize: Dr Kimberley Kendall and the ‘Bold’ project
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.
NIHR webinar: How to apply public involvement effectively to your research application
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…
GROW: Researcher Development Programme
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 funding for mental health – May and early June deadlines
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.
MQ Fellows Award 2022 – 29 April deadline
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…
Newsletter – spring 2022
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.
NIHR SPHR Public Mental Health Network
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:…
Roles at Mental Health Implementation Network
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.
Twitter takeover: Joy Llewellyn-Beardesley
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!
Internship opportunities at ARC Oxford and Thames Valley – 29 April deadline
Curious about research and the difference it could make to the people you work with? Up to £20,000 is available to help as part of an NIHR ARC OxTV research internship. Our funded internships offer an introduction to all aspects and roles across clinical / social academic research, from trial design, data management and analysis…
Get involvement opportunities straight to your inbox!
The McPin Involvement Bulletin is packed full of exciting opportunities to get involved and participate in mental health research. With a focus on lived experience, the (roughly) monthly round-up includes everything we’re involved in or have been sent, from lived experience advisory groups to higher education courses and lots more. For example, February’s bulletin promoted…
Presentations viewable online – NIHR Academy Doctoral Academy Training Camp
Presentations from last September’s NIHR Academy Doctoral Training Camp have now been made more widely available, sharing useful tips for all those preparing research funding applications. Sessions include: • Lessons learned when applying for postdoctoral funding • The art of framing your research question • Get value and benefit from Patient and Public Involvement •…
McPin Foundation
We are a mental health research charity that believes research is done best when it involves people with relevant personal experience that relates to the research being carried out. We call this expertise from experience and integrate this into our work by: Delivering high-quality, collaborative mental health research and evaluations Helping shape the research of…
DATAMIND survey on training for mental health datascience
DATAMIND works to make the best use of the UK’s rich health records and datasets for mental health research. As part of this work, we are providing training and career development opportunities for early career researchers in the interdisciplinary area of mental health data science. We would like to know what career development opportunities would…
Social media training from The Mental Elf
Practical training in digital public engagement & research dissemination skills for anyone interested in communicating mental health science. This is an online social media training day with The Mental Elf founder, André Tomlin. The cost is £75. The workshops are very interactive and problem-based. They help participants to: 1. Become familiar with the range of…
Webinar – 10 Feb from Oxford AHSN
Free webinar from Oxford Academic Health Science Network exploring how patients and health/care professionals can best work together. Hear from patients, relatives and professionals with experience of children & young people’s mental health services. Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inclusion-for-all-mental-health-children-young-people-tickets-228836936437
Funding for child and adolescent mental health from Kavli Trust
The Norwegian Kavli Trust Programme on Health Research will be awarding a total of NOK 20 million (£1.6million) to collaborative research projects addressing selected evidence gaps in child and adolescent mental health in 2022. The pre-proposal form is now open to applicants from Norway, Sweden, Finland or the United Kingdom. Find out more: https://kavlifondet.no/en/2021/12/call-for-proposals-kavli-trust-programme-on-health-research-2022/
Chief Nursing Officer for England’s strategic plan for research
The Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for England’s strategic plan for research is for all
nurses working in health and social care, whether they are already or thinking about
getting involved in research, colleagues in academia and the third sector and all those
who support research. It has been developed in partnership with stakeholders across
the health and care system including the Innovation, Research and Life Sciences Group
within NHS England and NHS Improvement specifically to ensure alignment across the
organisation.
PhD programme in mental health research for health professionals
Applications are now open for a new PhD Programme in Mental Health Research for Health Professionals. The programme will be based at King’s College London and funded by the Wellcome Trust. How to apply: https://kclmentalhealthphd.co.uk/apply Listen to a Mental Elf podcast on the programme.
Charity funders of mental health research
Where can I find out about potential charity funding for my study? If you aren’t a well-established researcher, it can be very difficult to know where to start. Even if you are, mental health remains an underfunded area with far fewer charities with either open or themed calls compared to other health conditions. But there are starting points.
500 researchers on the #MHRmap – and counting!
There are now over 500 researchers on our map of mental health research, including research-active clinicians, lived experience experts, and mental health academics. It’s great to see broad-based support for this resource which promotes cross-disciplinary collaborations in mental health research. The map of mental health research now has over 500 researchers listed from 20 different…
Social care research funding – deadline 24 Nov
NIHR Programme Development Grants (PDG) invites proposals to address the challenges within adult social care and aim to improve the evidence base for adult social care. We are particularly interested in applications that include users of social care, focus on populations and communities with high support/care needs, or have historically been under-served by research activity, and…
NIHR Programme Development Grants – next deadline 24 Nov 2021
The Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) Competition 37 is now open for applications for research proposals to develop individual programmes of applied health research. The application deadline is 24 November 2021. Find out more: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/programme-grants-for-applied-research-competition-37/28718 NIHR Programme Development Grants (PDG) allow researchers to pull together a community to develop a grant application over a…
UKRI funding for adolescent mental health and wellbeing research – 1 Dec deadline
Fantastic UKRI funding opportunity for mental health researchers at any career stage: Apply for funding to help improve research in the field of ‘adolescence, mental health and the developing mind’ through: methodological innovation capability building. You can be researcher at any career stage who is: within the remit of AHRC, ESRC or MRC based in…
Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) grants from NIHR
Research for Patient Benefit grants are great options for early and mid-career researchers who are looking for smaller pots of funding to consider. A real strength of the programme is the option to have co- principal investigators where an earlier career PI can be supported by a more experienced PI. RfPB is researcher-led and does not…
ECR hub brings together resources from UKRI mental health networks
The Mental Health Research Matters team has launched a new section of their website dedicated to supporting Early Career Researchers. The new ECR hub brings together resources which have been developed by the UKRI mental health research networks. The new pages bring together videos, content, reflections and learnings from their series of fantastic ECR-focused events…