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NIHR Faculty Governance

Ensuring quality and accountability

Q: How will NIHR be accountable?

A:

Significant public money is spent through NIHR on researchers' salaries. In order to be accountable for how this money is spent, the NIHR maintains baseline information on all Faculty members.

Employers of NIHR Faculty members should notify the NIHR if any Faculty member has been found to act in a way that might bring the NIHR into disrepute. This means serious misconduct resulting in suspension from employment and/or removal from professional registers. New NIHR and PRP research contracts will be amended to clarify that this is the case.

Q: What are employers' responsibilities?

A:

NIHR has no employer or quasi-employer relationship with members of Faculty. The responsibilities and liabilities of employers toward Faculty members are not changed in any way by their membership of the NIHR Faculty. Employers are responsible for all aspects of the management of their employees.

Employers contract with the Secretary of State for Health to receive NIHR or PRP funding directly, or receive NIHR/PRP monies through a funding transfer. As part of this contract employers must supply specified information on every member of the NIHR Faculty funded in this way.

Employers are responsible for ensuring that their employees give consent for baseline information to be provided to the NIHR.

Q: What are the responsibilities of regulatory bodies?

A:

The responsibilities of regulatory bodies for overseeing the professional conduct of their members are unchanged by individuals' membership of the NIHR Faculty.

Q: What information will be collected on Faculty members?

A:

A minimum data set of identifier, employer, research project, communication details (email address), will be collected. In addition, so that the effectiveness of equal opportunities policies can be monitored, information on gender, date of birth, ethnicity and disability status will also be requested. Prospective Faculty members will need to provide consent for these details to be provided to the NIHR Faculty. This personal data about individuals will be held on secure information systems. Sensitive personal data necessary for monitoring equal opportunities will be processed and held separately from other application details, and will not be accessible to any individual making decisions about the success of funding applications.

Q: How will information on Faculty members be collected?

A:

The application forms for NIHR and PRP funding have been amended to request appropriate information on Faculty members.

Faculty members will subsequently be asked to contribute further details to a directory of Faculty members.

Q: What checks will there be on the quality of information held on NIHR Faculty members?

A:

Selected information on NIHR Funding applications will be audited, as will a sample of information on NIHR Faculty members submitted via the NIHR Portal.

Q: Who supplies strategic advice on Faculty issues?

A:

An NIHR Faculty Implementation Group advised on the first year of implementation and a stakeholder workshop was held on 20 June 2006 to consult on the proposals for the Faculty.

The NIHR Advisory Board has now taken on the advisory function for setting the strategic direction and governance of the NIHR Faculty.

Q: How will NIHR Faculty support quality in research?

A:

The NIHR Faculty will help make the people who do high quality applied patient and people focused research more visible, so their research can have optimum impact. It will also offer incentives for research of the highest quality through appointment to the NIHR College.

All NIHR/PRP funded research has been subject to rigorous peer review. Membership of NIHR Faculty indicates that a researcher is conducting high-quality research.

In future when researchers compete for NIHR and PRP funding they will be asked to indicate how they can contribute to collective research endeavour, by conducting peer reviews or by undertaking dissemination activities.

Q: What duties and responsibilities does membership of NIHR Faculty entail?

A:

All members of Faculty may be approached and their advice requested on research topics within their areas of expertise. For Investigators and Senior Investigators offering advice may include serving as a peer reviewer, as a member of a panel, or advising on emerging research priorities. It is considered reasonable to expect Faculty members who receive significant NIHR/PRP research funding to advise in this way.

All members of NIHR Faculty will be invited to participate in activities including

  • research events;
  • coordinating activities - discussion groups, and interest groups
  • peer groups and events for Trainees;
  • delphi and similar groups for horizon scanning, priority testing and rapid production of consensus advice.