“Becoming part of something bigger”: Health and Care Research Wales Faculty celebrates two years

The Health and Care Research Wales Faculty is celebrating two years this September.

Established in 2022, the Faculty aims to build a collective health and social care researcher community.

Total investment into the new Faculty Scheme Awards has been over £3 million to date, with more than £1.8 million in advanced fellowships alone.

There are 217 members of the Faculty, who are health and social care researchers from a range of professional backgrounds and across all career stages, all of whom receive support, guidance, and training.

The Director of Health and Care Research Wales Faculty, Professor Monica Busse, has held the role since it was established and has already seen the benefits.

Professor Busse said: “What we're trying to do is develop an all-Wales researcher community where we develop research leaders of the future and people really feel part of something. Whether our members are together in a room or joined up in an online meeting, the community that we are building is starting to shine through.

“When you're trying to tackle complex problems, you can't do this on your own. It is that team discussion, that collaboration, that sharing, that is really instrumental in supporting our researchers along their own unique pathways.”

Faculty researchers feel “part of something bigger”

The Faculty is a member-only organisation made up of researchers who receive Health and Care Research Wales personal awards. Those with UK-wide personal awards are able to apply to become an associate member.

Benefits include peer contact, networking, mentorship, webinars, and leadership programmes, Researcher Development Advisors and a virtual network via a LinkedIn group.

Professor Busse, a chartered physiotherapist, and trials methodologist based in the Centre for Trials Research (CTR) at Cardiff University, has seen firsthand how important support and collaboration can be to a researcher.

She was awarded a Health and Care Research Wales/NIHR post-doctoral fellowship in 2013, which was the “biggest driver” in her career also one of the biggest challenges.

Professor Busse said: “It was a really lonely time because there weren't other researchers to talk to or to share challenges and experiences with, there wasn't a community of researchers who were supporting one another.

“What we're trying to do in the Faculty is bring people together to share, support and innovate.”

Professor Busse has already seen this happen, with researchers forging connections, sharing their research and their problems, coming together to help each other along the way. 

She continued: “The feedback generally is that [researchers] can feel that they are becoming part of something bigger.”

Visions for the future – “A real collective community”

Professor Busse hopes that the Faculty will grow to become more diverse and representative of researchers from all corners of Wales.

She said: “I want to be able to see people coming in early in their careers as researchers to the Faculty and then continuing to grow and develop as leading independent researchers.”

“I really want to be able to see social workers, allied health professionals, healthcare scientists, pharmacists, doctors, all working together because everybody brings different knowledge and skills all of which are needed to solve the complex health and care challenges of our time.”

Plans for the Faculty include equality and diversity initiatives, a New Trials Development Scheme, implementing a Grant Management System – which will allow online applications to be submitted – and masterclasses covering topics such Resourcing your study and Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI).

In time, Professor Busse hopes the Faculty will represent a distinctive aspect of research in Wales. 

She added: “What’s really unique in Wales is that we are small enough to be able to be a real collective community.

“I really want to see people from outside Wales going wow, look at what they do there.”

The Faculty's Doctoral and Advanced Fellowship awards are launching on October 17 2024, sign-up to the weekly bulletin for more information and the latest research news in Wales.