Research and development

• Public
• HSC Professionals
• Researchers
• Academics
• Community & Voluntary Groups
• Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) Groups
  
   

The work of Health and Social Care Research & Development (HSC R&D) is based on the principle that the best health and social care must be underpinned by knowledge, based on well conducted research, which can then be applied in the delivery of care.

HSC R&D does not ‘do’ research, but we work to support research that provides high quality evidence to improve care for patients, clients and the general population, and adds to our understanding of health, disease, treatment and care. This involves supporting researchers based in Northern Ireland as well as those in Health and Social Care Trusts or other bodies who use the outputs from research findings.

While the effectiveness of research performance and application depends ultimately on the skill and ability of individual researchers and users of research, HSC R&D ensures that researchers can work within an environment that supports, encourages and facilitates them.

To support local research, our main duties are to:

• fund essential infrastructure for research such as clinical research facilities, information databanks, tissue banks, clinical trials units and research networks
• build research capacity in Northern Ireland through research training opportunities
• enable research governance processes to be as efficient as possible
• ensure Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) in HSC R&D and work with many partners and stakeholders to embed PPI across HSCNI
• create opportunities for researchers to compete for research funding on a wider UK or international basis
• support innovation as a means of transferring HSC R&D findings into practice

We work closely with:

• members of the public, including patients and clients
• clinical and academic researchers based in Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs) and universities;
• policy-makers in the Department of Health NI
• Research offices and teams in HSCTs
• practitioners and teams throughout HSCTs
• Commercial companies in seeking growth and opportunities in clinical research across NI

HSC R&D has a local focus and works in partnership with other public sector organisations, charities and businesses that are involved in health and social care research across Northern Ireland. Yet HSC R&D acknowledges that health and social care research is a global endeavour, and so, also forms effective partnerships and close working relationships with our counterparts in the other UK administrations and internationally, in particular in Ireland, the rest of the European Union and the United States of America. These partnerships are vital to the funding and delivery of our programmes and initiatives.

For further information on HSC R&D, please visit: www.research.hscni.net

To contact HSC R&D (general enquiries) please email: enquiry.rdpha@hscni.net