Amanda Craig, Chief Executive of NHS Research and Development North West, recently joined Mersey Care’s Nursing, Midwives and Allied Health Professions (NMAHPs) Research and Innovation Forum to discuss the exciting opportunities available for early career researchers through a new internship programme. Here, she discusses the programme, the brilliant work of the NMAHP forum and Mersey Care’s hard work to build research capacity and capability.
I was recently delighted to come along to Mersey Care’s NMAHPs Research and Innovation Forum with my colleague, Jo-Anne Simpson. We were thrilled to visit the Indigo Building on the Maghull Health Park to talk with researchers and managers, having initially met the group back in February of this year.
For me, the best part of any event such as this is not just meeting old friends and making new ones but hearing about the incredible research journeys that practitioners are undertaking. It takes great courage and confidence to share your work with any audience, and my congratulations go out to Cat Phillips, Matthew Savage and Rebecca Hartley for their inspiring presentations.
Health and Care Professional Internship Programme
We were also asked to share some of the latest work we have been doing. It gives me great pleasure to say that with the support and help of your research forum leads, Oladayo, Jade and Krystina, we have been successful in securing the contract to deliver the new National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Care Professional Internship Programme for the next three years.
Why is this important you may ask? Because it provides researchers like yourselves (regardless of where you are on your research journey), the opportunity to apply for funding to help you become more involved in research. The programme will enable you to develop the skills and confidence you need to progress your research aspirations and activity with support from your employer.
The programme is open to 23 early career researchers each year. Recruitment will close 19 December 2025, and the actual programme will start in April 2026. We encourage anyone who is interested in applying to either attend our application workshop on 14 November or one of our online Q&A sessions on 25 November and 9 December to learn more about the programme. Learn more here.
Mersey Care’s research journey
Mersey Care has an excellent track record for securing places and awards on both national and local NIHR Programmes and we want to help you build on this. Recently Mersey Care staff secured five out of the 30 places on Liverpool Health Partners Researcher Development Programme (LHP RDP) which was launched by NHS Research and Development North West and Liverpool Health Partners (LHP).
The Trust also has one of only two North West regional Senior Research Leaders based at Mersey Care in the form of Dr Oladayo Bifarin. And of course, our congratulations go to Shruti Sharma who has recently secured a place on the NIHR national Developing Research Leaders Programme.
As an organisation you are working hard to build your research capacity and capability, and it is a privilege to be on this journey with you.
Looking forward
We have been invited to join you again for the next Nursing, Midwives and Allied Health Professions (AHPs) Research and Innovation Forum meeting in November 2025.
We look forward to hearing about more of your research activity and sharing some key research news and information from regional and national sources with you. It will also be a great opportunity to talk about some more opportunities for you to get further involved in the research agenda at Mersey Care and within the North West region.
