Published: 05 December 2022
The exceptional contributions of respiratory medicine researchers were recognised recently at the Annual British Thoracic Society (BTS) Winter event at London’s Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.
The BTS and NIHR Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN) awards offer an important opportunity to further a joint commitment to encouraging research. The awards also aim to make close connections and showcase research skills, processes and outputs.
The winning researchers had to meet a range of criteria across the four award categories. These included leading collaborative research projects, research that changed practice, mentoring early career researchers, increased research recruitment and engaging with patients to increase participation.
The winners are:
- Principal Investigator or Chief Investigator making an outstanding contribution in design, conduct and dissemination of NIHR portfolio studies, and building research capacity: Najib Rahman, Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Consultant Respiratory Physician, University of Oxford
- Early Career Researcher and those new to research showing a significant contribution to recruitment into NIHR portfolio studies: Sanjay Ramakrishnan, Clinical Research Fellow, University of Oxford
- Early Career Researcher and those new to research from all non-medical professional groups showing a significant contribution to recruitment into NIHR portfolio studies: Christine Mwasuku, Clinical research nurse, Oxford
- Research Team making an outstanding contribution to the NIHR portfolio studies in 2020-2022: Nick Maskell, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Bristol/North Bristol NHS Trust.
Professor Tony De Soyza, NIHR National Specialty Lead for Respiratory commented:
“Respiratory medicine and its vibrant healthcare community has lots to celebrate when it comes to delivering cutting edge research. The Annual Winter BTS event celebrates the improvement in healthcare and science in Respiratory medicine.
I am incredibly proud of the passion you bring to tackling our knowledge gaps and I am delighted that your efforts can be more obviously recognised.”
Rachael Moses, BTS Past President said:
“The joint BTS/NIHR Awards was such an exciting scheme aimed at recognising the excellent research and portfolio contributions taking place across so many teams nationally. The vision for these awards was to attract submissions from all professional groups and centres really trying to find those unsung heroes, and we were delighted that the standard of applications was so good.”
Since its establishment in 2006, the NIHR has significantly increased the scale of clinical research in the NHS, particularly through the NIHR CRN. The enthusiastic engagement of NHS physicians and trainees is essential for sustaining and building on this success, particularly given the many competing demands on clinician time and resources.