Five top reasons to enter the Health and Care Research Awards

The Health and Care Research Wales Awards celebrate impactful and innovative research transforming health and social care in Wales. Here are five top reasons why you should consider entering, as told by some of our inspirational award winners from recent years:

1. Meaningful public involvement

Public involvement is crucial in health and care research, ensuring that studies reflect the real needs and experiences of the community. The LISTEN study, winner of the Public Involvement Award in 2023, is a prime example.

LISTEN co-designed a self-management support programme for people living with long COVID. Ffion Davies, Research Nurse at the Centre for Trials Research, emphasised the importance of diverse perspectives. She said: “Including diverse backgrounds, different people’s knowledge and different levels of expertise helps shape a trial that is hopefully effective.”

2. Significant impact on policy and practice

Research that influences policy and improves practice is highly valued. The HEAR 2 study received our Impact Award in 2023. The study, led by Dr Ashra Khanom, influenced Welsh Government policy on interpretation services for asylum seekers and refugees.

Dr Khanom added: “Within one month of dissemination we were involved in policy development and putting a scoping document together around the recommendations from HEAR 2. There’s a Welsh health circular that has gone out to all the health boards in Wales to say that staff need to be aware of people’s language needs and provide interpretation and translation where possible.”

3. Innovative solutions to real problems

Innovation is at the heart of advancing health and social care. The Innovation in Practice Award, awarded to the CARiAD study in 2023, demonstrated this by training family members to administer medication to dying loved ones at home.

Dr Julia Hiscock, speaking on behalf of the team led by Professor Clare Wilkinson, Professor of General Practice at Bangor University, said: “The carers we’ve talked to who’ve done the task with their loved ones are unanimously pleased they had the chance to do this. It’s an important study that helps people at a difficult time of their lives.”

4. Recognition for emerging researchers

The awards support early-career researchers making significant contributions. Last year, the Rising Research Star Award went to Mr David Bosanquet ,Vascular Consultant at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, for his work in vascular surgery.

Mr Bosanquet’s dedication to improving amputation outcomes through patient involvement was particularly commended. He said: “As a direct [result] of what patients said, we changed things so that every single patient on PLACEMENT was informed about the Limbless Associations’ free peer-to-peer support programme.”

5. Encouragement of collaborative efforts

Collaboration across disciplines and with the public is essential for impactful research. The winner of the Impact Award in 2022 highlighted the success of the SAIL Databank and its partners’ “One Wales” COVID-19 response.

Ashley Akbari, Associate Professor at SAIL Databank, said: “This is a true recognition of the collective team efforts. Our project involves multi-disciplinary collaboration between the government, policymakers and the public.”

Submit your applications for the Health and Care Research Wales awards 2024 now to celebrate your success and excellence in health and social care research.

Closing date: 17:00 on 15 July 2024

You can also submit your abstracts for a TED-style talk at the conference.