Who we are.
School Members:
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The School for Primary Care Research is a partnership between the Universities of University of Bristol, University of Exeter, Keele University, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, University of Southampton and University College London. |
Representatives from each Member sit on the Board. Each member also has a dedicated Training Lead, Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) Lead and Research Manager.
Directorate:
The Director of the School is Professor Christian Mallen, Head of School of Medicine, Keele University.
Dr Georgina Fletcher, Assistant Director, School for Primary Care Research, Keele University
SPCR operations are overseen by the directorate team led by Dr Georgina Fletcher:
The school has two deputy directors, Sallie Lamb (Exeter) and Fiona Stevenson (UCL). The research capacity development programme is overseen by two leads, Steph Taylor (Queen Mary University of London) and Hazel Everitt (University of Southampton).
| Georgina Fletcher | Assistant Director |
| Jess Nye | Senior Programme Manager |
| Christina Farrall | Programme Officer |
| Heather Gibbs | Programme Officer (Comms) |
| Halle Johnson | Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Manager |
| Stephanie Gallimore | Finance and Contracts Manager |
| Claire Ashmore |
Programme Manager - Three Schools' Mental Health |
| Rebecca Cox |
Research and Engagement - Faculty of Medicine and Health Science Administrator (Secondment) |
| Tom Flint |
NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) Administrative Officer |
For general enquires please email us: spcr.keele.ac.uk
MEMBER DETAILS:
CENTRE FOR ACADEMIC PRIMARY CARE - UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) at the University of Bristol is one of the leading centres of academic primary care in the UK, and internationally known as a centre of excellence for research. It has been a member of the SPCR since its inception in 2006.
CAPC aims to provide high quality evidence to address some of the most important health challenges relating to NHS primary care, and to generate knowledge that is accessible and useful to academics, commissioners, clinicians, service providers, voluntary sector and the public.
CAPC has over 100 staff members, including academic GPs and primary health care scientists with expertise in statistics, qualitative methods, health economics, randomised controlled trials, realist evaluations and systematic reviewing. Projects often involve collaboration with other departments. Locally we collaborate with colleagues at the University of the West of England, Bath University, ARC West, the dental school, and the eye hospital.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
TRAINING LEADS
Christine Cabral (Post Docs)
Alyson Huntley (Doctoral)
Debbie Sharp (Clinical)
PPI LEADS
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGER
Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care - University of Exeter
The Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) is an established centre of excellence for primary care research and education based within the University of Exeter Medical School. With a strong track-record in collaborative, impact-focused, multidisciplinary and innovative research, the work of APEx informs and responds to international, national and local priorities. APEx brings together primary care researchers, healthcare professionals and educators, and the infrastructure to interact with partners in the NHS, wider health and social care system, voluntary sector and industry.
APEx seeks to maintain and grow a dynamic community across professional groups (e.g. GPs, nurses, physiotherapists, other allied health professions) and academic disciplines (e.g. statistics, psychology, social sciences, health economics) relevant to primary care research and education and does this partly through a dynamic training programme involving undergraduate and taught postgraduate students, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and those combining clinical and research roles.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
PPI LEADS
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGERS
School of Medicine - Keele University
The School of Medicine at Keele University provides an inclusive, dynamic research and training environment committed to open science and research integrity. We attract, retain, and develop a talented and diverse research workforce. Our teams are supported by a strong research and implementation infrastructure, integrated clinical partnerships, patient and public involvement, and (inter)national collaborations, in order to accelerate early adoption of best evidence into policy and practice, and of methodological innovation into research application.
We lead the NIHR School for Primary Care Research and host an NIHR accredited Clinical Trials Unit, and a dedicated Impact Accelerator Unit (IAU). Our designated IAU works together with research teams to push the pace of translating research findings into tangible benefits for patients, clinicians, and the NHS. Based on our internationally recognised research in pain and arthritis, we are a EULAR Centre of Excellence and have been recognised as the Primary Care Centre of Excellence Versus Arthritis. Current NIHR, Wellcome and Versus Arthritis grants to the School amount to over £25 million.
SPCR BOARD MEMBER
TRAINING LEADS
PPI LEAD
Adele Higginbottom (Interim)
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGER
Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research - University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is the largest, single-site university in the UK. Our primary care research is cross-disciplinary and broad in its focus, addressing the over-arching research question: ‘How can we safely manage and improve the health of an aging population in primary care?’
Capacity building is critical to our mission, and we are keen to support those interested in either qualitative or quantitative research methodologies. Applicants will join a network of researchers studying a broad range of issues affecting primary care. Our membership of the School for Primary Care Research brings together the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research and the Drug Usage and Pharmacy Practice Research Group, reflecting the increasing need for inter-disciplinary collaboration in the delivery of primary care services.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
TRAINING LEADS
Benjamin Brown (Clinical)
Kelly Birtwell (Fellowships)
Maria Panagioti (Grants + Collaborations)
PPI LEADS
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGER
Centre for Academic Primary Care – University of Nottingham
The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a multi-disciplinary unit of over 130 people, including practising GPs, other health professionals, psychologists, statisticians, research and support staff.
Working together with the Centre for Evidence Based Dermatology, and Epidemiology and Public Health (which form the Unit of Lifespan and Population Health), and colleagues in Rehabilitation and Aging, we do internationally leading research to improve the health and primary health care of individuals and communities. In the Research Excellence Framework 2021, 100% of our research impact was judged to be world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
We welcome and train postgraduates to be the best researchers of tomorrow, and have expertise in randomised controlled trials, observational studies, epidemiology, economics and qualitative methods.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
TRAINING LEAD
PPI LEAD
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGER
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences- University of Oxford
We conduct high impact multi-disciplinary research. This has been recognised in the Research Excellence Framework, where Oxford was ranked top for the quality of our research, its infrastructure, and the impact we make on the world. We are able to do this because we are well supported by genuinely helpful research infrastructure and have an excellent training programme for clinicians and other scientists.
This inter-disciplinary department is home to clinicians, clinical epidemiologists, medical statisticians, social scientists and psychologists, working collaboratively on programmes to improve health and healthcare. Being a large department means we work hard at being a friendly one and are confident that we succeed. We ensure our department has progressive employment policies that value the careers of all our team and we are proud that we hold an Athena Swan silver award and are working towards gold. We aim to develop the careers of our early and mid-career scientists and to provide opportunities to form productive collaborations and develop high-level content and methodological expertise, which will enable all our team to grow their careers as scientists.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
TRAINING LEADS
PPI LEAD
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGER
TBC
Centre for Primary Care - Queen Mary University of London
The Centre for Primary Care is one of five research centres in the Wolfson Institute of Population Health (WIPH). The Centre for Primary Care encompasses the work of the Primary Care Unit and the Clinical Effectiveness Group.
The Primary Care Unit brings together expert teams to carry out research into the environment, asthma and infection, multiple long-term conditions, and the complexities of everyday experience, healthcare interactions and working practices. Their work uses a wide range of methods including qualitative and mixed methods, natural experiments, modelling, intervention development and assessment, and research synthesis.
The Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) uses primary care health data for research, with a particular interest in reducing health inequalities and improving population health. The unit provides analyses, clinical tools, guidance and expertise to NHS primary care teams across North East London and leads the Wellcome Trust PhD programme ‘Health Data in Practice’. CEG is a founding member of the Discovery Data Service, which integrates data from GPs, hospitals and community settings in near real-time.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
TRAINING LEADS
PPI LEAD
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGER
Primary Care Research Centre - University of Southampton
Southampton Primary Care Research Centre (PCRC) is an international centre of excellence for research in primary care.
Southampton PCRC includes a multidisciplinary team of researchers including academic GPs, sociologists, psychologists, statisticians, pharmacists, data scientists, and health sciences researchers. We work collaboratively with many institutions and groups, including other academic departments, NIHR infrastructure (RDN, RSS, BRC, ARC), Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, and partners in charitable organisations and industry.
In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework PCRC achieved the highest rating in our unit of assessment (UoA2) for outputs with a Grade Point Average of 3.71 and 94% considered as 'internationally excellent' or 'world leading'.
We have a strong commitment to supporting education and training for all our students and staff, to excellent patient and public involvement and to dissemination and implementation of our research.
SPCR BOARD MEMBERS
TRAINING LEADS
PPI LEADS
RESEARCH SUPPORT MANAGERS
Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health - Univercity College London
The Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health at UCL is part of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care and is headed by Prof Fiona Stevenson. We undertake world-leading research in primary care, addressing the management and prevention of disease in high-priority areas of health. We deliver high-quality teaching in primary care and population health in a range of health and community settings.
Our goals are to:
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Undertake excellent research that is clinically relevant and impacts on health and wellbeing;
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Provide excellent teaching in primary care, population health and research methods;
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Strengthen the discipline of primary care through leadership in research, teaching and clinical practice;
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Work in partnership with service users, practitioners, policy makers and other stakeholders to increase the impact of our research, teaching and innovation on health and health care systems;
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Foster professional development to enable everyone to reach their full potential.