Uni's funding boost to help healthcare workers learn new skills

Healthcare professionals in the West Midlands will be funded to take up a new research master's programme thanks to a prestigious grant being awarded to Coventry University.

Coventry has become one of only 10 UK universities – and the only one in the West Midlands – to receive funding for the studentships from Health Education England (HEE) and the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR)¹.

The studentships are available for non-medical healthcare professionals² who work in the NHS – including nurses, midwives, pharmacists, healthcare scientists and allied health professionals – and who are interested to improve their clinical research skills and develop research expertise in their area of clinical practice.

Coventry's new clinically-focused master's by research (MRes) programme will be funded by HEE and NIHR to take on 10 healthcare professionals, whose course fees and salary costs will be covered for one year full-time or two years part-time study.

Students will receive the support of both academic and clinical supervisors, who will help them to develop an understanding of research methods that are relevant to the clinical settings in which they work. They will also learn the skills to conduct an original patient-focused research project of their own.

Professor Jane Coad, acting associate dean of research and professor in children and family nursing at the University's Centre for Technology Enabled Health Research, said:

This new funding is excellent news, and we're delighted that it will enable us to offer these prestigious research studentship opportunities through our Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

Research students will become tomorrow's academic and clinical leaders, so our new HEE/NIHR MRes programme is created specifically to develop and support healthcare professionals' preparation for a research career and ensure the future of UK health research is in good hands.

¹HEE is the body set up by the Department of Health to coordinate healthcare education in England. NIHR is funded by the Department of Health to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. For further information, visit https://hee.nhs.uk/about or www.nihr.ac.uk.