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 the top MHR Awards to seven researchers whose projects represent some of the most exciting new developments in mental health research today. Eight other researchers were runners up. Awards went to early career researchers whose work is already influencing clinical practice, projects that reflect outstanding collaboration with patients and public, and to innovative…
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!
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…
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 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 •…
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 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…
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…
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
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/
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.
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.
The NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC) is offering a series of funded research taster days at a range of leading academic centres in the UK. Awards will be made to year 2 Foundation trainees who wish to explore mental health research opportunities. The aim of this scheme is to widen access to research…
It is considered good practice to involve members of the public and people with lived experience as early as possible in the research design process. Funding public involvement at the application stage can be challenging. The Research Design Service (RDS) ‘Public Involvement Funds’ aim to bridge that gap. Funds are available to help facilitate public…
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…
The Applied Research Collaboration for East of England announces the launch of its Mental Health Fellowship programme for people who work in mental health to undertake an 18 month supervised mental health research and implementation project. Find out more here: https://bit.ly/3xrKWjS
The Introduction to Evaluation online short course is aimed at staff in frontline services in the NHS, local government and social care organisations who are aiming to conduct evaluations of services or interventions and covers key guidance from the planning stages through to sharing your findings. This course is suitable for staff from NHS Trusts,…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
View the summer 2021 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.
What is the Research Design Service (RDS)? We asked that question to Louise Halbert, Business Manager at the NIHR Research Design Service (or RDS for short 🙂 ) She said… “The Research Design Service (RDS) supports researchers to develop applications to the National Institute for Health Research and other national funders of applied health and…
In a wide-ranging discussion, Professors Lucy Chappell and Cathy Creswell discuss the rationale behind the launch of a number of new NIHR funding schemes for mental health research that have been announced, including region-specific schemes. They go on to discuss the importance of research into co-occurring physical and mental health conditions, capacity issues in certain…
A new website promoting the value clinical academic careers is a useful resource for clinicians with interests in mental health research CATCH, the Clinical Academic Training & Careers Hub, aims to be a one stop shop for information on academic careers. The website promotes the role of clinical academics and supports health professionals beginning their…
Members of the Mental Health Research Incubator Advisory Group were behind the brand-new video series in which researchers and experienced public contributors discuss patient and public involvement (PPI) in mental health research. Dr Emma Černis and Dr Simon Hackett highlighted that support and direction with PPI was an area that mental health researchers would welcome…
Funded by NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the AHSN Network, SBRI Healthcare announces a Phase 3 funding competition open to innovations in an advanced stage of development. The aim is to accelerate these innovations into relevant health or social settings, and to facilitate the generation of evidence in Real World settings required by commissioners…
The NIHR Schools for Primary Care Research (SPCR), Public Health Research (SPHR) and Social Care Research (SSCR) have launched a new programme to address the challenges faced by front line health and care professionals. The Mental Health Practice Evaluation Scheme aims to support the three NIHR Schools work in partnership with professionals across a range…
The Mental Health Research Incubator is a broad-based community of mental health researchers at all career stages, mental health professionals, lived experience experts and public contributors to mental health research. We are committed to building mental health research capacity. Sign up to our newsletter on the homepage (big orange square, top right) to keep up…
Free online course This free open access course explains simply how medical treatments are discovered, tested and evaluated. If you’re curious about research, this might be a great place to start: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/clinical-research
‘Your path in research’ is a new NIHR campaign which is championing the careers of research-active health professionals. Although the content is mainly aimed at clinical professionals – or people who work with patients in clinical contexts, there are lots of useful resources we want to shout about for researchers who work in non-clinical contexts…
An all-day masterclass on how to improve your chances of success when applying for an NIHR Fellowship. This online event is open to any researcher, clinician and/or academic from across the South Central region (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire) who is considering an NIHR Fellowship application. Find out more and register via…
Online webinar from NIHR for those wishing to pursue an PCAF application. Webinar topic: Find out how to develop a competitive PCAF application The HEE/NIHR ICA Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (PCAF) supports health and social care practitioners (excluding doctors and dentists) to develop a competitive doctoral fellowship application. The award funds a bespoke training and…
The Beneficial Changes Network is now open for a second round of transformation, innovation or improvement submissions from the frontline. This is a fantastic opportunity for mental health researchers and professionals with relevant experience. This round of submissions is not specific to changes which occurred during the pandemic, rather a general invitation for submissions in…
Nurse and senior research fellow at Leeds Beckett University, Dr Rachael Kelley, got some great chat going in her twitter week with us – good food for thought! Thanks Rachael. Here’s her twitter week to catch up on if you missed it! https://wakelet.com/wake/psxVd-_rrAhLjx2oIw3nA
Psychologist and researcher Dr Emma Černis highlighted her career inspirations did some research career myth-busting in her takeover week with us. Here’s her week to catch up on if you missed it! https://wakelet.com/wake/eb54uyRzTFn6VBvktRCwn
A huge new investment in mental health research offers significantly more funding opportunities for mental health researchers in the year ahead. The broad range of programmes will offer opportunities for both early and mid/late career researchers. They specifically target key geographical regions with the most need and include opportunities for researchers in fields not traditionally…
Mental health in the North of England Research for Social Care is running an additional call focusing on important social care questions around mental health in Northern England. This additional call is an important part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s ongoing interest in strengthening mental health research in less well supported areas….
Apply now for Launchpad Grants for mental health research from the Medical Research Foundation. The closing date is 27 September. The Medical Research Foundation’s Launchpad Grants will support early and mid-career researchers and clinical academics, whose research will increase understanding of mental health, and improve diagnosis, treatment and recovery. The funding should be used to…
This online workshop organised by the South Central Research Design Service is for researchers who are applying for a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Fellowship. The workshop covers the following NIHR schemes: • Doctoral Research Fellowship • Advanced Fellowship • Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship • Clinical Lecturer • Senior Clinical Lecturer There will be…
This workshop organised by the South-Central Research Design Service is for those who are interested in research but don’t know how to get going. It may be of particular interest to those applying for a research-related internship or pre-doctoral fellowship to start a clinical academic career. This workshop will cover: • What makes a good…
The Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH) has launched their new course in ‘Research methods: a practical guide to peer and community research’. In the 10-week practical course hosted on FutureLearn, participants will identify how to conduct their own research and develop their own ethical research project. It is designed to introduce research methods…
The NIHR Programme Development Grants (PDGs) programme has launched a funding call inviting proposals for research to address the challenge of mental health. Deadline: 4 August 2021 Find out more on the NIHR website: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/programme-development-grants-mental-health-call/27995
View the summer 2021 MHR Incubator news online. You can sign up to the newsletter via the link in the top right corner of our homepage.
The Wellcome Trust have launched three new discovery research funding schemes which can support mental health research projects. The three schemes – early career awards, discovery awards and career development awards – will open in late summer 2021. Find out more about the schemes on the Wellcome Trust website.
The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme will launch the 5th round of its Connect Awards on the 17th of August 2021. There will be two funding streams in this round: 1) Connect awards, and 2) Children and Young People’s Mental Health (CYPMH) awards. The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme is a translational funding…
Aspiring nurse researchers can now access a selection of doctoral level theses, all of which have been completed by mental health nurses. The new resource is intended to be a guide to research at a doctoral level. It has been developed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in collaboration with the RCN Mental Health…
“The number of people presenting with mental health problems to general practice is a worrying growing trend, however, the involvement of GPs in mental health research is an area for hope. Being a practising GP and an active researcher are not as incompatible as one may think – a growing number of GPs are conducting…
Consultant psychiatrist and mental health researcher at the section for women’s mental health at King’s College London took the reins of the @MHRincubator twitter account for one week in June. Here’s what happened on our second #MHRtakeover!
Mental Health Biomedical Research Preparatory Clinician Fellowships offer healthcare professionals an opportunity to obtain the necessary research track record, skills and support to compete for externally funded three year Clinician Training Fellowships with NIHR, MRC, Wellcome or other funder. The scheme is available to medical trainees in psychiatry or neurology and to other health professionals…
A new paper by Dame Til Wykes and other leading figures in mental health research describes the Department of Health and Social Care’s mental health research goals and the process that was taken to codevelop them. The paper is published in the Journal of Mental Health and features commentaries from many different people and organisations,…
A must read for anyone interested in the research priorities in COVID-19. This article is an open access publication accessible to readers anywhere in the world. Read the article in full here.
MentalHealthResearchUk announces a competition for two PhD Scholarships beginning September 2022.
Bea Shelley
resment
Mental Health TRC
RDS
Applied Research Collaborations (ARC)