PenCLAHRC Frequently Asked Questions

Who is PenCLAHRC?
At the top level it is a partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, through the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry and local NHS organisations with high engagement from chief executives from all the NHS Trusts.  The PenCLAHRC Management Board, which consists of a team of 23 senior members, has representation from all the NHS Trusts as well as from the universities and patients. At an operational level PenCLAHRC is made up of university and NHS staff working throughout the peninsula in small teams such as the Implementation Team, the Evidence Synthesis Team and the Patient Involvement Team.  Locality leads are also being appointed from the NHS Trusts to ensure close engagement on the ground.

How is PenCLAHRC funded?
The award from the National Institute for Health Research was £10 million to establish a five year pilot CLAHRC in the south west. This funding will be matched by a number of other sources throughout the south west, including NHS South West, the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, the European Centre for the Environment and Human Health in Cornwall, the charity Cerebra and local NHS trusts involved in specific projects.

What can PenCLAHRC do for me?
•    Allow healthcare workers to set the research agenda
•    Align research with real world healthcare priorities
•    Help to clarify and specify uncertainty
•    Support the development of bid proposals
•    Support development and undertaking research
•    Promote use of evidence in practice
•    Evaluate change and implementation within health care organisations
•    Inform Trust’s research and development agenda
•    Bridge the research/practice gap
•    Improve the opportunities for your question to be acted on when you don’t have the time or resources

How do I get involved?
A key part of the process will be “Engagement by Design”, a process whereby health care professionals, service users, health and social care organisations will be involved at all stages of the research. The five stages of the model will work to bridge the gap between research and practice by identifying effective interventions, implementing them and evaluating the implementation. The first stage of the process begins with question generation. Question generation forms a very important part of this procedure. Our question tool is designed to turn your healthcare concerns into manageable research questions. You can access it here.

How will PenCLAHRC help people take their research forward?
If your topic is prioritised PenCLAHRC will help you to develop a strong research proposal to put forward for funding applications from external bodies. PenCLAHRC will allocate you a project facilitator who will help you to establish relevant networks of communication to enable your project to move forward smoothly and rapidly. In most cases, there will be additional academic resource available to project teams, either with an interest in the project area or specific research methods.

Does PenCLAHRC fund projects?
PenCLAHRC does not fund projects directly. However, if a research question is prioritised that involves a systematic review of the literature the PenCLAHRC Evidence Synthesis Team may be able to help by conducting the review or supporting you through the review. Similarly, there are modelling experts available for prioritised projects that involve simulation studies.

What are the next steps after a question has been submitted?
When you have submitted your question through the web-tool, it will be held for the next round of prioritisation, which is a multi-stage process.
1.    When the deadline has closed all the submitted questions are presented to the PenCLAHRC Executive Group (which includes clinicians and academics, representing all areas of Devon and Cornwall and a wide range of health care practice). At this meeting the Executive Group discuss the clarity and relevance of each topic to the PenCLAHRC criteria. They then vote independently and anonymously on the questions that should be considered at the wider Stakeholder meeting.
2.    Topics prioritised at this stage go forward to the Evidence Synthesis Team who prepare a ‘priority briefing’– this will include all the information included in the submission and tries to fill in any gaps. The team will contact you during this process to ask for further information, if necessary, and to check you are happy with the priority briefing.
3.    The priority briefing will then be presented at the Stakeholder Prioritisation Panel Meeting. The number of projects prioritised at this stage will vary depending on the votes and the size of the projects.
4.    PenCLAHRC will inform all submitters of the outcome of the prioritisation. The decisions taken will be reported to the PenCLAHRC Management Board, the minutes of which are available on this website here.
5.    Please note that successful topics will be published on the PenCLAHRC website and may be mentioned in internal reports and articles describing the PenCLAHRC process.

What parts of clinical research come under PenCLAHRC?
Initially, four theme areas were identified in which PenCLAHRC would aim to develop research, these were Diabetes and Vascular Risk, Development and Ageing, Mental Health and Neurology, and the Environment and Human Health. However, PenCLAHRC will consider questions from any area of clinical research. Take a look at our current projects (and previous priority briefings) to see how broadly the topic coverage is.

What role will PenCLAHRC have in supporting primary research?
PenCLAHRC strives to make the primary research application process as simple as possible. It seeks to keep the question submitter involved as much or as little as they wish. If a topic is prioritised, PenCLAHRC will help to develop a research proposal, to apply to external sponsors for funding and help deliver the project. PenCLAHRC will also be keen to help in the evaluation of the project to help establish the success and applicability of the results. While PenCLAHRC will be mostly working on primary research, evidence synthesis is also important to the collaboration.

If my question is prioritised how much will I be involved?
The level of involvement is up to the question submitter. Some submitters may just want some research to be carried out on an important area but not have the time to fully commit themselves to a project. This kind of situation is common and PenCLAHRC would make an effort to ensure that the submitter is updated on progress. In other circumstances, the submitter may want to be as involved as possible – in this case the only thing that may restrict them is their other commitments. Please be aware that a topic may not be developed in the geographical area in which it was submitted if it makes more practical sense to develop it elsewhere in the region. Even in these circumstances, the submitter is encouraged to remain involved to the extent that they are able.

What is prioritisation, how does it work and who will do it?
We expect that more questions will be generated than can ultimately be addressed. An explicit prioritisation system will be used to filter questions. This will be based on: Prevalence/incidence and health and resource impact of the problem from a local and national perspective, the potential for health gain, the feasibility of the research question and the appropriateness of the local environment to address the question.  Prioritisation will be undertaken by the Management Board. Questions not prioritised will be signposted to other appropriate research bodies locally within the Trust and nationally to systems such as the HTA programme.

What is the timescale for answering questions?
The timescale for answering questions (i.e. conducting the review, primary research, implementation or evaluation) will depend on the type of question it is. For a systematic review, PenCLAHRC might hope to have a final product in a few months. Primary research will depend on how long it takes to receive funding and how long the intervention and follow-up need to be. Implementation projects will depend on the willingness and ability of staff and organisations to bring about change and, in principle, for the associated PenCLAHRC evaluation to be carried out.

What does PenCLAHRC do with the questions that are not prioritised?
For questions that are not successful in the PenCLAHRC process the question submitter will be informed and where appropriate PenCLAHRC may suggest submitting the question to other research units such as the RDS and others. No questions will be used further without the permission and involvement of the original submitter. A record of each question will be kept for the internal evaluation of PenCLAHRC.

What is the difference between PenCLAHRC and the R&D dept?
The main role of the RDS is to help NHS or associated researchers to develop their research protocols and apply for national external grant funding. If PenCLAHRC prioritise a topic that will involve this stage of research development then they will be keen to work with the RDS to fully utilise the existing expertise in the local area. PenCLAHRC will also have other topics at different stages which will not require this support such as evidence synthesis and implementation projects – this is where the main difference between PenCLAHRC and the RDS exists.

The main role of R&D departments is to support research undertaken by Trust staff or involving Trust patients. This involves providing training, advice and funding for local research. R&D departments ensure patients’ rights are protected by making sure that all research satisfies quality standards and legal requirements. In contrast PenCLAHRC is unable to provide direct funding for research, although the staff employed in the collaboration will carry out research, particularly evidence synthesis.

PenCLAHRC is unique in its process of developing research topics which includes ideas from patients as well as clinicians and academics.

How does PenCLAHRC link in with the RDS?
PenCLAHRC does not work directly with RDS (NHS Research Design Service) but it is often beneficial to join forces. If PenCLAHRC finds it cannot support your project we will direct you to other research units to try and enable the project to go forward. While RDS covers the whole of the South West region PenCLAHRC works on a more localised basis in Devon and Cornwall.

How does PenCLAHRC fit in with the rest of the CLAHRCs?
There are eight other CLAHRCs (Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care) around England. Each CLAHRC has been set up to improve services and outcomes for patients by conducting high quality applied health research. Each of the CLAHRCs has a specific research agenda in mind. Each of the CLAHRCs collaborate with, share information with and peer review for each other. PenCLAHRC’s involvement of service users from the very beginning is a unique strength in its structure. It will also help PenCLAHRC to tackle issues around the acceptability of health care procedures to patients (the ‘third gap’).

What are the names of the other CLAHRCs?
There are eight other CLAHRCs across England. The websites can be accessed here

What is PenCLAHRC’s geographical area?
PenCLAHRC covers all of Devon and Cornwall, including the Isles of Scilly. It is possible, however, for some research projects to include sites outside this area, particularly if a comparison site is required.

Where is PenCLAHRC based?
PenCLAHRC operates across Cornwall and Devon and those who work with us usually remain within their main employer, whether this is at a university or an NHS trust site. However, we currently maintain a small staff at two main office locations in Exeter and Plymouth:

Director’s Office (Professor Stuart Logan)
Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry
Veysey Building
Salmon Pool Lane
EXETER EX2 4SG

Operational and Finance Manager (Helen Papworth)
Peninsula CLAHRC
C520, Portland Square
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
PLYMOUTH PL4 8AA
Telephone 01752 586826