The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) has announced the new membership for its School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) with funding of over £30 million over the next five years, to support the next phase of the NIHR SPCR research and capacity programme.
From September 2015, NIHR SPCR membership will include the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Keele, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Southampton and UCL.
The NIHR SPCR will continue its mandate to increase the evidence base for primary care practice and train future leaders by providing multi-disciplinary training and career development opportunities.
The Cambridge Primary Care Unit is delighted to be re-joining the School for Primary Care Research. Professor Jonathan Mant, who leads the Primary Care Unit, said: “We see this as a wonderful opportunity to build academic capacity in primary care locally, and to collaborate with other members of the School in generating high quality research evidence to underpin future delivery of health care in the community.”
This will make a real difference to our ability to impact on improved primary care practice and on the patient experience” – Professor Jonathan Mant, Primary Care Unit, Cambridge
“We hope to contribute to research in prevention and diagnosis, including for example, early detection of type 2 diabetes and novel and scalable interventions for smoking cessation using very brief face-to-face interventions and mobile technology.”
“Second, we hope to explore the effectiveness of approaches to improving the delivery of end of life care in the community – the NIHR School is well placed to access the data needed to make an important international contribution. Third, we will be able to develop and evaluate interventions to enhance the interaction between patients and practitioners and look at how that can improve the quality of care offered.”
Professor Richard Hobbs, Head of Department at University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, has been re-appointed as Director and looks forward to leading the School into its new phase, working closely with members to develop a new business strategy and research and capacity programme.
Professor Hobbs said: “I am delighted to be re-appointed as Director of the School for Primary Care Research and would like to extend a warm welcome to colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Newcastle. Over the next five years, I look forward to seeing existing and new members develop innovative collaborations and excellent research, continuing to provide impact and inform the development of improved primary care practice across many areas of proficiency.”
The School will be supported by NIHR research funding in the region of £22 million to conduct clinical trials and other well-designed studies in primary care and at the interface with secondary care. The School’s research currently covers the following interrelating research themes:
- long-term condition management
- methodological innovation
- multi-morbidity and ageing
- patient centred care
- prevention and diagnosis.
In addition to supporting research, funding in the region of £10 million will be awarded to research training and capacity development within the School.