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Understanding research and innovation

Defining research and innovation

What is research?

Research is a systematic process of gathering, analysing, and interpreting data to create new knowledge or use existing knowledge in a new way. Research can be driven by curiosity or focused on addressing specific issues, such as health and social care

What is innovation ?

Innovation is defined as the process of bringing about new ideas, methods, products, services, or solutions that have a significant positive impact and value. It involves transforming creative concepts into tangible outcomes that improve efficiency, and effectiveness, or address unmet needs.

Research and innovation strategies across Greater Manchester

Some health and social care organisations (in particular very large ones) may have a Research and Innovation Strategy which is defined as a vision and framework for the delivery of statutory responsibilities alongside building capacity and capability of the workforce to embrace and actively engage with research and innovation.

As a GM nurse, midwife or allied health professional interested in research and innovation you may first want to learn more about the strategies in our region. Here are links to:

Local organisations research and innovation strategies

Some health and social care organisations may have a Research and Innovation Strategy or Annual Report, which may be found on internal or external websites. If you are interested in accessing your local organisation’s strategy/report but cannot find it, contact the research and innovation department or main email address which may be found in the section ‘Talk to people who can help’, and someone may be able to assist. If your organisation does not have a strategy or report refer to the GM or NHS strategy on the previous page.

Talk to people who can help

If you feel overwhelmed or unsure about what steps to take next, make sure to speak to your local organisation’s research and innovation team or senior manager. Below are your first point of contact email addresses. Some organisations have a ‘Meet the Team’ page on their website too.

Dedicated staff support research and innovation across a diverse range of clinical and care areas to deliver improved tests, treatments and devices for patients, people and residents in Greater Manchester and beyond.

Greater Manchester Mental Health Partnership
Manchester Foundation NHS Trust (MFT)
Northern Care Alliance
Pennine Care
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care
Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh

Introduction to North West Regional Research Delivery Network

Formerly known as the CRN Greater Manchester the NW RRDN is one of 15 Regional Research Delivery Networks in England. Their support allows research to take place in NHS, Public Health and Social Care settings.

What does the NW RRDN do
  • help researchers to set up clinical studies quickly and effectively
  • match patients/people with potential studies and deliver those studies to time and target
  • hold intelligence about patient/people populations and care pathways
  • support the life sciences industry to deliver their clinical research programmes
  • provide health professionals with clinical research training
  • work with patients/people to ensure their needs are at the centre of all they do.

Introduction to NIHR Applied Research Collaboration GM

The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARCGM) supports applied health and care research that responds to, and meets, the needs of local populations and local health and care systems.

The NIHR ARC-GM is hosted by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, as part of Health Innovation Manchester, in collaboration with the University of Manchester and other Greater Manchester Universities.

Find more information on ARC-GM, what they do and their resources

Introduction to the NHS Innovation Service

The NHS is a large and complex system. Introducing new products and technologies can be challenging. Innovators must demonstrate the value of their healthcare product and navigate complex regulatory and procurement processes. For the NHS, finding new innovations that meet its needs can be equally difficult.

The NHS Innovation Service is a free, online platform created to solve both problems. It provides a centralised front door for healthcare innovations that have potential use in the NHS, matching them to relevant organisations to provide tailored support.

The NHS Innovation Service can provide support for any healthcare innovation that will impact service provision or delivery of care and could be purchased or adopted by the NHS. Innovations which fall outside of this scope may not be able to receive support via this service.

Introduction to National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

The NIHR provide information and support about what health and care research is and how you can develop your research knowledge and skills.

This includes support by profession. Learn more about what is available to assist you with your career development in research and innovation.

Introduction to the School for Social Care Research (NIHR)

The School for Social Care Research continues to commission and conduct internationally leading social care research to improve the evidence base for effective and equitable practice and to support the translation of evidence into practice.

The aim of the school is to improve the evidence base for adult social care in England.

If you work in social care and want to explore options for engaging with, or using research, SSCR can help. They provide support to enable research to happen. Whether you are new to research or have past experience, you can engage with the different programmes across the NIHR. Explore the support and funding opportunities available.

Linking Research and Innovation Activities to The Revalidation Process

Revalidation is the process that all registered health and care professionals in the UK need to follow to maintain their registration with their professional body. Being involved in research and innovation activities contributes to revalidation.

This can include:

  • recording hours of practice as a registered health and care professional,
  • practice related feedback from participants and colleagues within the research team,
  • completing hours of CPD activity (as conducting research requires learning new knowledge and skills),
  • reflective written accounts where you can reflect on your research
  • innovation experiences as they link to your code of practice.

Research and Innovation Opportunities

Training and development in research and innovation knowledge and skills may be provided by your local organisation or other organisations they collaborate with such as NHS R&D North West, NIHR and the GM Universities. Here are some information that is linked to health and care organisations across GM.

Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Clinical Research team support staff through secondment on the NIHR early career research pathway, INSIGHT course, and NIHRAOMRC research leaders in health care Masters.

Inaugural research conference in May 2024 with University of Bolton and NIHR which is to
become a yearly event. Contact research@boltonft.nhs.uk

Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh

Posters are located around the Trust ask ‘do you know what research is going on?’, with an email address and QR code for further information. Educators can email researchadmin@wwl.nhs.uk, who will provide you with information on research opportunities or advice. Educators can be added to a contact list for weekly global newsletters with research partnership opportunities.

Northern Care Alliance

NCA host and sponsor all types of research. If you would like your research sponsored or hosted, you can contact the Trust on rdresearch@nca.nhs.uk For further information on what support NCA can offer, visit www.ncaresearch.org.uk/support-research.

There are many areas of research and innovation to get involved in and further opportunities may come through advertised job openings in research teams who are delivering research studies for external sponsors, or through obtaining grant funding to develop your own research questions.

Pennine Care

Pennine Care conduct many observation and interventional studies which includes a young people’s mental health research centre, a learning disability research unit, psychosis research unit, and older people’s research unit. See Pennine Care for more information.

Greater Manchester Mental Health Partnership

Opportunities for Educators include individual mentoring for the Clinical Academic Pathway, and paid research secondments for those in clinical posts.

Educators can also search for research opportunities within the Trust on active studies finder and research and innovation pages.

GMMHP also hold a series of workshops called Resealing Potential, and sessions such as Career Planning, Introductory Coaching Skills, & Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (PCAF) and/or Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (PLAF) programmes.

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Research conducted at Stockport spans the life course and disease/ illness pathologies of the population it serves, with a focus on NIHR portfolio badged studies (observational and interventional).

You can email research.development@stockport.nhs.uk with any research related queries or if you wish to be added to the local research contacts list. You’ll then receive all the local/regional news around professional research opportunities, training courses and information about the current study portfolio recruiting at the Trust.

Stockport also works collaboratively with Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS
Foundation Trust with a shared 5-year research and innovation strategy.

The Christie

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust is a centre for cancer research and innovation. We focus on developing new treatment to improve patient outcomes. Educators/Assessors can use the contacts on this page to discuss any opportunities.

Manchester Foundation NHS Trust (MFT)

“As one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, MFT oversees ten hospitals including two major trauma centres, and two local care organisations. It is the main provider of hospital care for a diverse population of approximately 1 million people with around 2,600 beds across our sites. MFT employs more than 28,000 staff, more than 600 of whom are directly employed within Research and Innovation. MFT hosts substantial R&I infrastructure on behalf of its regional and national partners and sits within a wider health and care ecosystem that is designed for and committed to advancing the frontiers of health and care through partnership.” Research & Innovation (cmft.nhs.uk)

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care

Tameside Hospital conducts observational and interventional studies covering a wide range of specialties that are relevant to our patient population. Research sponsorship is reviewed on a study by study basis and researchers are encouraged to contact the research department at an early stage for advice rd@tgh.nhs.uk. Further details of training, current research activity and research opportunities can be obtained from the research department.

Training and development opportunities

Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh

Research and innovation training opportunities include: Aspire programme, Insight programme, training for support for MyLibrary, critical appraisal training, literature search training, advice on ECR programme, internships, NIHR, education advice, research method courses, writing workshops, Masters advice.

Greater Manchester Mental Health Partnership

GMMHP do not offer internal training, but signpost to NIHR training. If you are unsure where to start or cannot access NIHR training, contact AskAboutResearch@gmmh.nhs.uk, who will be able to point you in the right direction.

Northern Care Alliance

NCA offer internal SOP training programme. Training is directed to NIHR GCP training. Most courses should be free to anyone who has an NHS email address. If you are unsure where to start or cannot access the training, contact rdresearch@nca.nhs.uk, who will be able to point you in the right direction.

Pennine Care

Pennine Care offer research and innovation training through Trust induction, research days and research events. These are advertised on the R&I intranet pages throughout the year. Pennine Care also advise taking up NIHR training and development opportunities.

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Stockport champions NIHR training and development opportunities for staff, with a team of NIHR facilitators providing various national courses such as ‘Becoming a Principal Investigator (PI)’, ‘Introduction to Good Clinical Practice Consolidation’ and PI Essentials. This is coupled with support from their library services for critical appraisal and literature search training.

The research and innovation office actively publicise all research related professional development opportunities through ‘all staff’ communication channels.

NIHR training

Most NHS organisations encourage staff to undertake NIHR training to develop research and innovation knowledge, skills and attitudes. We recommend getting familiar with the NIHR website, as you will find many opportunities and information across their pages.

The Christie

The Christie has a range of Study Days and Conferences

Manchester Foundation NHS Trust (MFT)

Keep up-to-date with the latest news, publications and events from the Research and Innovation team at MFT.

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care

Tameside Hospital conducts annual research events and internal SOP training opportunities. We signpost people to the NIHR training resources.

NHS R&D Northwest

NHS R&D Northwest support the capability and capacity of the NHS health and social care research workforce. They provide training, mentoring and coaching to the workforce who is passionate about research and innovation and it’s impact on patient/service user care. More information can be found on the NHS Research and Development site.

Getting a Research Workload

Research is part of everybody’s business and each organisation may have specific policies on the allocation of research workloads for their staff. This can be anything from no specific research workload to protected research time, or research time allocated from a fully funded grant application. For more information about research workloads email your organisation’s research and innovation team or senior manager.

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