ARC reaches milestone figure as 100th Internship awarded

The ninth group of internship awards

ARC Wessex presented its first internship awards in 2020. Now, five years later, over 100 people have received them to help get started in research to benefit the patients and people they care for.

Part of the ARC Wessex mission from the start has been to develop capabilities and capacity in applied health and care research in Wessex. Two million pounds have been invested in making that happen as part of the Academic Career Development programme, run by Professor Cathy Bowen and Dr Kinda Ibrahim.

Dr Qian Tun, was one of the first people to be supported by ARC Wessex to do her PhD, and she's now received more funding to develop her clinical research:

Internship Awards are given to help health and care professionals take some time out of their day job to examine a research question related to their job or area of expertise. Awards of up to ten thousand pounds are used to help their organisation 'backfill' their job normally for one day a week over six months. It also provides resources to support their learning needs and involve patients and the public in planning research.

The results have been outstanding, one intern has been using her research experience on her hospital ward in Dorset to enhance the support dementia patients get. She is now going on to do a PhD. Another has used his research to change the way heart failure patients recover and stay mobile at one of his clinics.

ARC Wessex funding has also had an impact on Social Care, with research giving insights into the retention of staff, but also on another area where research has given us a greater understanding of the needs and wishes of people with learning disabilities.

Voluntary groups have also received funds to carry out research into issues affecting mental health and people's care needs in the community.

The latest round of Internship Awards broke new ground by awarding higher grants to teams of clinicians. Luke and his colleagues, Konstantina and Carol, work at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. They are looking at how walking football can help patients with certain conditions to improve their health.

Professor Cathy Bowen, is the deputy director of ARC Wessex and the lead for clinical academic development:

This academic career development programme, and in particular the internships, have been the jewel in our crown when it comes to supporting the next generations of applied health and care researchers in Wessex.

There are so many talented people from across clinical professions and organisations that we have had the privilege to work with over the last five years.

ARC Wessex has worked with NHS England, the Southampton Academy of Research (SOAR), Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust to develop research careers for health and care professionals in Wessex. The model has now been scaled up with further funding and adopted across England in 14 other regions.