Pharmacists invited to apply for practice research funding under 2006
awards and bursaries scheme
The Practice Research Trust
The Pharmacy
Practice Research Trust was established by the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society in 1999 as an independent research charity.
Its broad objective is to promote and develop research relating
to the practice of pharmacy. It aims to promote research that
will enable policy makers, manufacturers, prescribers and others
to
better understand the people who use medicines and the contexts
in which they do so.
As well as offering awards and bursaries, the trust, through
its “Medicines
and people” research programme, commissions research relating
to the place of medicines in society and the practice of pharmacy.
It also aims to stimulate debate and spread knowledge about medicines
and the people who use and take them and to develop a new generation
of academic leaders who can lead the debate and inform thinking,
particularly within pharmacy.
The trust is governed by a board of trustees and managed by staff
from the Society’s research and development division. The
trustees are drawn from among senior health policy makers, leading
academics,
industrialists and retailers.
The Society provides core funding for the trust as part of its
investment in practice research. |
The Pharmacy Practice Research Trust is inviting applications from community pharmacists for 2006 practice research bursaries and awards worth up to £90,000 in total.
The practice research awards, which are administered by the trust on
behalf of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, are intended to build research
capacity in pharmacy practice. Persons from the following groups are
therefore encouraged to apply:
- Those requiring funding between PhD and postdoctoral grants
- Those requiring funding to go from MPhil to PhD
- Practitioners new to research
- PhD students requiring “research
costs” to enhance their
PhDs
The awards can also be used to fund new areas of research, such as pre-pilot
and feasibility studies that would not be considered by other funding
bodies.
Two types of practice research award are available — Galen awards
and Sir Hugh Linstead fellowships. One or more Galen awards are made
annually to a total value of £10,000 funded by a bequest by Rowland
Henry Williams. One or more Linstead Fellowship are made annually to
a total value of £40,000 funded by a grant from the Leverhulme
Trade Charities Trust to support research relating to community pharmacy.
In addition to these awards, the bursary scheme, also funded by the Leverhulme
Trade Charities Trust, exists to support individual community pharmacists
who have basic experience and skills in health services research and
wish to develop their skills to pursue research as part of their everyday
practice. The trust has £40,000 to fund a number of projects at
three different levels:
- Level 1 funding is provided to support a pharmacist undertaking
research modules and a small-scale project supported by a research
organisation
(for example, a higher education institute, a primary
care research network or a research and development unit)
- Level 2 funding
is provided to upgrade a diploma in clinical or community pharmacy
to an MSc, which usually involves undertaking a further two
modules (one on research methods) and a project
- Level 3 funding is
provided to support a pharmacist in undertaking a non-pharmacy MSc
Applications for bursaries are invited from pharmacists who demonstrate
a real need for external support to develop their skills and careers
in research. The bursaries are open to pharmacists who are either self-employed
(as independent community pharmacists or locums) or employed by small
chains (defined as up to 60 registered premises).
The bursaries include the following items of funding: salary (pro rata
for part-time pharmacists) or locum costs; course fees; research costs
(up to a maximum of £250, to include printing, postage and travel);
supervision costs (from a higher education institution or a local research
and development unit or network); conference attendance (up to a maximum
of £200 towards attendance and presentation of work at UK conferences).
Previous recipients of bursary funding include John Hall, a community
pharmacist from County Durham, who obtained
Level 2 funding in 2005 to
conduct an MPhil at the graduate research school of the University of
Sunderland (PJ, 22 October 2005, p532). Mr Hall said: “Practice
research is becoming the cornerstone of development with primary care
trusts and other NHS bodies demanding evidence of effectiveness in new
roles. This bursary will help me find the time to stand back from the
business to look at the problems facing us in developing the research
base and hopefully stimulate myself and my colleagues to get involved
in research inside and outside of our own practice.”
Another previous recipient is Tabassum Jafri, a 2003 bursary holder,
who is going on to undertake a PhD at the Engineering Department, Cambridge
University. The aim of Ms Jafri’s project is to apply risk assessment
practices to the medication provision process, either based on existing
methods, or by adapting and tailoring new methods. A major case-study
will be based around the provision of automation in hospital pharmacies.
The deadline for completed applications for awards and bursaries is 9
June. It is expected that interviews will be held in late July at the
Society’s London headquarters.
Further details, application forms and guidance notes are available from
Beth Allen, Acting Research Manager, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1
Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7572 2466; e-mail beth.allen@rpsgb.org)
or from the practice
research section of the Society’s website
(www.rpsgb.org/research).
Brief information about the Pharmacy Practice Research trust is set out
in the Panel. Further information is available from Beth Allen or the
Society’s website
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal