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    Empowering meaningful community engagement and involvement in global health research

    25 February 2021

    Enabling patients and communities to have a genuine voice in global health research - from the funding process to study design, delivery and dissemination - is essential to achieving research impact that can change lives, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalised communities. Erica Nelson and colleagues from the Institute of Development Studies outline the shared learnings from the first in a series of webinars with NIHR to support researchers to effectively engage and involve communities in global health research.

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    Young adults collaborating with researchers to make sense out of the pandemic

    11 February 2021

    Annie Keane, from patient involvement group Vocal, and teenager and research participant Alma Jbeili, write about how an innovative comic project Planet DIVOC-91 aims to address the lack of focus on young people’s concerns and experiences in the wider public discussions about the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Women blog

    Dr Alison Austin – Women in Science Day 2021

    11 February 2021

    To celebrate Women in Science Day 2021, Deputy Director of Research at NHS England and Improvement, Dr Alison Austin explains how she started her career in the sector and what advice she would give those hoping to have a career in science.

    A pivotal point for MS research

    09 February 2021

    Dr Emma Gray, Assistant Director of Research, at the MS Society writes about how recent scientific breakthroughs, and the launch of the landmark ChariotMS trial, funded by an NIHR and MRC partnership, are offering hope to patients with MS.

    Why we need to test COVID-19 tests

    21 January 2021

    Scientists and engineers have rushed to fill the gap for rapid diagnostic tests during the COVID-19 pandemic, but how do we know which ones work best in which settings? The researchers behind the COVID-19 National Diagnostic Research and Evaluation platform (CONDOR) outline how their study is evaluating new diagnostic tests to speed up real-world use.

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    Building a public partnership approach

    15 December 2020

    Where next for patient and public involvement in research? Jeremy Taylor, Director for Public Voice, and Tina Coldham, public contributor from the NIHR Centre for Engagement and Dissemination (CED), consider this central question and how the centre can take forward the work previously coordinated by NIHR INVOLVE.

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    Promoting equity in research funding: lessons from HSR2020

    08 December 2020

    Sophie Durrans, Global Health Research Advisor, chaired a session at the 6th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2020), held recently as a virtual conference. Here, she reflects on efforts to ‘level the playing field’ for LMIC researchers, and how we can learn from and work with partners to push this agenda forward in the New Year.

    Hayley Martin, research midwife and Principal Investigator

    Reflections on the first wave: a research midwife’s experience

    17 November 2020

    Research Midwife and Midwifery Practice Facilitator Hayley Martin stepped away from the maternity ward during the first peak of the pandemic to join the COVID-19 Research Team at the Princess Royal University Hospital, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Now a principal investigator for a maternity COVID-19 data registry study, Hayley writes about her journey.

    Barbara Moore

    Using my skills in the race to find a vaccine

    05 November 2020

    Barbara Moore, Senior Public Involvement Manager, at Health and Care Research Wales, writes about her experience working with participants in the Oxford University vaccine trial and the importance of including the public’s voice in shaping how research is conducted

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    Assessing the health research grant application process

    03 November 2020

    Ben Morgan is Assistant Director for the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme and NIHR Research Schools, Research Programmes. He writes about assessing health research grant applications and whether the processes being used currently, lead to funding the best research.

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    Rethinking your CPD: “Human See, Human Do”

    27 October 2020

    Fans of the film Planet of the Apes may recognise this quote. It is a pastiche of ‘monkey see, monkey do’; referring to learning a process without an understanding of why it works. John Castledine, Head of Learning Development and Design at NIHR, explores the topic of learning through imitation in his latest blog as part of the NIHR's Rethinking your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) series.

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    Living with Covid19 - a different approach to emerging evidence

    22 October 2020

    The latest NIHR Themed Review focuses on the long-term health impacts of Covid19, but without much published research available, what other types of evidence can we learn from? Jodi Brown from the Centre for Engagement and Dissemination explains the approach taken for this emerging topic.

    Pete Thompson

    Working at the interface of academia, industry and health and care

    20 October 2020

    Pete Thompson is Director of Programmes and Impact at NIHR Academy. In his blog he gives us an insight into his early career working with pharmaceutical companies and how as part of his current role he is encouraging more researchers and commercial companies to work together to drive forward improvements to care and interventions.

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    Understanding the impact of the pandemic on people with mental ill health

    12 October 2020

    Gordon Johnston is a peer researcher with lived experience of mental ill health. Gordon is a co-applicant on the University of York’s Optimising Wellbeing during Self-isolation (OWLS) project, recently funded by the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation. He describes the background to the project and how he was involved in its development.