NIHR GOSH BRC Academic Training Weekend

The National Institute for Health Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) is excited to host its next Academic Training Event on Saturday 19th - Sunday 20th November 2022. The event is aimed at early career researchers from across the UK who are working to improve the lives of children and young people through clinical and laboratory-based research programmes. The event programme has been developed with the aim of supporting attendees as they move towards becoming independent researchers by taking them through the different steps along the journey.

We are very much looking forward to bringing together researchers from different specialities and disciplines, including clinicians, non-clinical researchers, nurses, AHPs, pharmacists, dentists and health care scientists. To get the most out of the programme, attendees will be post graduate and either a postdoctoral researcher or towards the end of their PhD with prior experience in a relevant profession (e.g., nurses, AHPs, pharmacists, laboratory technicians and others), although all applications are welcome.

This will be a residential event held at Ashridge Business School, a picturesque country estate and stately home in Hertfordshire: Wedding & Conference Venue in Hertfordshire: Ashridge House. We have space for around 50 attendees with accommodation for Saturday night and food provided at a subsidised cost of £70.

There will be three sessions in the programme, each featuring talks and facilitated breakout groups. There will also be plenty of networking opportunities during coffee breaks, lunches and dinner on Saturday evening. Confirmed speakers are shown below – a range of speakers representing other clinical backgrounds have also been invited:

• Professor Thomas Voit, Director of the NIHR GOSH BRC, Honorary Consultant of Paediatrics, and Vice-Dean for Enterprise at UCL’s Faculty of Population Health Sciences
• Professor Ros Smyth, Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and Vice-Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Population Health Sciences at UCL
• Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive Officer of the NIHR, Professor of Obstetrics at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Obstetrician
• Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, Professor of Child Health at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Chair of the Health Research Authority for England and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician
• Professor Graham Lord, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at University of Manchester and Consultant in Nephrology and Transplantation

Each session will be focused on a different step along the research journey. Information about some of the topic areas these sessions will cover are given below. Further details of the programme for the weekend will be provided in due course.

Session one: How to develop a research programme

• Securing funding for your research
• How to build a good team and develop the right collaborations
• How to overcome barriers

Session two: Practical aspects of research

• Public perception and diversity in research
• Research governance
• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Resilience and balancing workload
• Leadership and institutional citizenship

Session three: Communicating and disseminating your research

• Media and communications skills
• Commercialising your research
• Deciding on the next steps in your career

We hope you are interested in attending the event. To apply, please complete a short Expression of Interest (EOI) Form and submit to brc@gosh.nhs.uk by Tuesday 20th September 2022. For anyone who is interested in attending but may find it challenging to come to an in-person event, please contact us to discuss.

The Event Steering Committee will review the EOI forms with the following selection criteria:

• Likelihood the attendee will benefit from the event programme
• Balanced representation of delegates with regard to profession, career stage and location
• Attendee’s interest in research and evidence of their plans to carry out research for the benefit of patients.

We will contact all researchers who have expressed an interest in attending the event by the end of September to confirm whether they have a place.

Please contact brc@gosh.nhs.uk if you have any questions.