7th December 2022
Health and Care Research Wales Faculty: “one of the most important initiatives Health and Care Research Wales has set up”
September 2022 saw the first meeting of the newly established Health and Care Research Wales Faculty, who gathered to learn about plans for the new initiative and to help shape future development.
The event, which welcomed the members who have received Health and Care Research Wales personal funding awards, including the NHS Research Time Award, and Senior Research Leaders, was opened by Professor Kieran Walshe, Director of Health and Care Research Wales.
Kieran said: “The Faculty is one of the most important initiatives Health and Care Research Wales has set up in the last three years. It captures the enthusiasm and interest of many people across health and care research who are involved in and supportive of developing research careers and capacity and capability.”
“People should get great mentorship, support and opportunities for learning, and have the advice that allows them to develop.
We hope, through the Faculty, we can encourage a broad base of talent across the health and care system and academia, and develop and support research leaders of the future.”
The Health and Care Research Wales Faculty
The Faculty was established as a result of recommendations from the February 2022 report Making research careers work: a review of career pathways in health and social care in Wales. All Health and Care Research Wales personal award holders are members of the Faculty and it will:
- Coordinate and oversee a range of widely accessible (and targeted where needed) personal research award schemes for health and social care researchers across professions career stages
- Publish researcher equality, diversity and inclusion data and develop action plans to help facilitate the equal representation of all groups, across career stages and professions, in the Welsh researcher population
- Progress the individualised and peer learning and development and mentorship that our health and social care personal award holders need to advance their research careers
- Foster interdisciplinary interactions and networking across the faculty community of health and social care personal award holders from all backgrounds and all areas of Wales
- Enable opportunities for the sharing of high-quality faculty research with relevant UK and international communities with a view to raising the profile of Welsh research and promoting the research career opportunities of the researchers themselves.
Building the Faculty
At the event, Professor Monica Busse, Director of the Health and Care Research Wales Faculty, gave an overview of the Faculty and asked those in attendance to help shape future directions.
Health and Care Research Wales Senior Research Leaders facilitated small groups who were asked for their views on what was working well in relation to research careers in Wales and how the Faculty can build for the future.
Participants noted key priority activities for the Health and Care Research Wales Faculty should be focussed on “Promoting relationships across the research community” and “Providing sustainable support across the whole career pathway.” Participants also suggested that “Establishing networks and collaborating beyond Wales was of great importance for members.”
When asked what a successful Health and Care Research Wales Faculty would look like, members stated a successful Faculty would be visibly “growing research leaders of the future, ensuring more opportunities for training and development and enabling networking (real or virtual) which would bring junior/senior researchers across different institutions together to ask questions.”
The views of participants were gathered using an interactive online whiteboard and will be extremely valuable in informing the next steps for the Faculty including the agenda for the first face-to-face meeting in December.
To keep up to date with news about the Faculty and Health and Care Research Wales funding, sign up to the Health and Care Research Wales weekly bulletin.
If you have any questions regarding the Health and Care Research Wales Faculty, email the Faculty team.