100,000 participants enroll in urgent COVID-19 research

Over 100,000 UK participants have now enrolled in COVID-19 urgent public health research supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – at NHS hospitals and care settings across the United Kingdom. Read more here.

NIHR launches new UK wide funding call for longer-term COVID-19 research

The NIHR is today launching a new call inviting applications to better understand and manage the health and social care consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic beyond the acute phase, to help mitigate the impact of subsequent phases of the pandemic and its aftermath. Read more here.

Celebrating nurses and midwives as they adapt to the COVID-19 crisis

International Nurses’ Day was celebrated around the world on 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Dr Sharon Barrett, Associate Director of Nursing at the NIHR Clinical Research Network marks this day by reflecting on the way research nurses have responded to the global pandemic. Read more here

New research to assess extent of coronavirus infection in children and teenagers

New research funded by the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will assess rates of coronavirus infection and immunity in children and teenagers across the UK, to provide vital evidence to guide the response to the pandemic. Read more here

NIHR reaffirms its support for patient and public involvement, engagement and participation during the COVID-19 pandemic

The NIHR has highlighted its continuing commitment to ensuring patients, carers and the public have a say in and help to shape health and care research during the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with its long standing commitment to patient and public involvement, engagement and participation (PIE) in health and care research. Find out more here

First volunteers receive new trial coronavirus vaccine

The first two healthy volunteers have been immunised with a new experimental coronavirus vaccine, developed with support from the NIHR. Read more here

RDS Blogs: From the RDS desk

Each month, the Research Design Service, brings you handy tips, insights and experiences of the funding application process. The blogs touch on various themes in the design process and highlight what you need to know before you make a research application.

This month’s blog: Working in partnership to develop public health research – An RDS perspective: discusses how Public Health Research aims to generate evidence on issues that determine population health such as genetic, environmental and social factors.  The objective is then to use this knowledge to propose interventions and policies, to help improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities.  Find out here what the RDS is doing to support this effort and how in turn we can help you apply for funding.

Check out the previous blogs below:

June 2020: Equality, diversity and inclusion in health and social care research: COVID-19 and beyond

May 2020: Public involvement during a pandemic: how we are supporting researchers

April 2020: Our new normal; still your RDS

March 2020: Social care research – a heated debate

February 2020: Using natural experiments to evaluate population health interventions