Presentation for the NIHR CLAHRC National Conference Careers Day: for postdoc research careers in the allied health professions

1. Grant winning-
Why am I qualified to talk about it?
Tips what to do and what not to do
Prof Cath Sackley,
King’s College, London

2. Early years
79-82 Qualified Sheffield City Polytechnic
82-85 Worked Lewisham, Q Mary Sidcup
95-96 Remedial research fellowship DHSS-
Soton Rehab MSC
87-91 Nottingham PhD

3. Post Doc

4. Personal awards
 Senior 1 Community physio- start up garnt
of 3k (equivalent to RCF or FSF nowdays)
 NHS EXEC HSR post doc training award –
pt time
 National Primary Care Researcher
development award- Oxford Uni
 5 Year Career Scientist – Oxford

5. Grants - ~100
 Project and programme grants
 Personal Awards-for me and others
 Equipment grants
 Infrastructure grants, Clahrc, Doctoral
Training, NIHR schools, global health.
 ~50 million

6. Grant Boards/ reviewing
 UK
 Charities- Professional Bodies- MRC-
EPSRC- BBSRC- NIHR +++- DH-
 EU
 Other countries- Australia- Canada-
Netherlands- Romania
 ~ 50 a year for 30 years= 3,000 approx.

7. !0 things to do
1. Is it the right competition? Are you in scope? Know
the process and the remit.
2. Is there enough money to do what you want- why do
you want it?
3. Is it an important question to- patients/NHS/funders?
4. Start as part of a team- be realistic about your place in
pecking order-
5. Composition of team MUST have methodologists
6. Do homework, look up previous award holders, panel
members, etc

8. 7. Think about management/independent oversight/ budget
8. Plain English summary- what does success look like to
non specialist.
9. Peer review prior to submission ++ Dictation notes
remaining in the text of the research proposal e.g.
“Beverley, we need to have a chat about the sample size, I
don’t understand how you got these numbers”
10- Keep trying- but LISTEN to feedback

9. !0 things NOT to do
1. Out of scope-recycled
2. Over ambitious- nobel prize for 12 months and 35k –
recruit 1,00 in a year- average is one per site per month.
3. Background+++, not enough methods- don’t cut and
paste your thesis
4. Not enough on doability- recruitment evidence-
management- data management
5. Fake partnerships
6. Late on the ‘latest idea’ black boxes –tool kits- CBT-
Vit d- exs

10. 7. Poor/angry response to feedback- if HTA ask
you to change it- change it
8. No methodologists – just all clinical specialists-
9 Badly costed -Greedy funding –
10. So what?

11. Finally
Remember- grant writing is story telling-
frequently has little to do with the reality!

12. Copyright ©2007 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
Legg, L. et al. BMJ 2007;335:922
Effects of occupational therapy on personal activities of daily living
Making a Difference!
Effects of occupational therapy on
personal activities of daily living

13. Barriers to clinical research training
• Difficulty with career structure and appointments
• Timing of training within career
• Challenges at interface between training schools/university
depts/trusts
• University agenda dominated by educational research, not
patient centred.
• Protection of research time for clinicians
• Shortage of appropriate posts on completion of training.
• Inconsistent quality of research and clinical supervision
National Coordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development www.nccrcd.nhs.uk