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Research Design and Conduct Service (RDCS)

Research Design and Conduct Service – important changes from April 2023

The All-Wales Research Design and Conduct Service was set up more than a decade ago to support staff working in the NHS and social care to develop high quality funding proposals for research to be submitted to a range of research funders.

After a review in 2022, we concluded that people who wanted to develop their research ideas needed much more than support with writing a grant application – they needed research training embedded early on in their career, research development opportunities and mentoring, and access to peer and other expert support networks and engagement with the centres and units we fund in universities. This could also enable them to gain experience of being a co-applicant on a grant proposal with more experienced researchers before they submitted an application on which they were the lead applicant.

So we have changed the offer we are making to people in the NHS and social care wanting to build and develop their research careers in 2023 in order to provide a more cohesive package of health and social care researcher learning and development, including mentorship  and other development opportunities through the new Health and Care Research Wales Faculty.

The Faculty, which was established in 2022, was a key recommendation in the Making Research Careers Work report which looked strategically at improving research career pathways and building greater opportunities for all health and social care researchers in Wales.

The Faculty provides support, guidance, research training and other development opportunities for Health and Care Research Wales personal award holders, who are health and social care researchers from a range of professional backgrounds and career stages. Its aim is to progress a collective health and social care researcher community who are assured of a supportive environment which enables them to conduct their research with impact and to progress along their individual research career pathways.

It is opening a range of personal award schemes – from Emerging Researcher awards aimed at novice researchers to awards aimed at supporting more advanced researchers in submitting competitive applications for prestigious UK-wide fellowships to UKRI and other funders. The Faculty will also be making awards intended to build expertise in leading clinical trials and other well-designed studies, and for the first time, salary replacement doctoral awards for people wanting to develop a sustainable research career in health or social care career. 

Overall, our investment in this area will increase by over £1m a year.

From April 1 2023, researchers in the NHS and social care can find out more on the Health and Care Research Wales Faculty web pages and contact the team for advice on the range of different funding schemes and the learning and development opportunities available to award holders.  

Please note that up until the end of March 2023, researchers can still contact one of the three RDCS offices in Wales for support in developing a funding proposal.