Make research connections
Resources and advice on making research connections
When you are starting out in research you may want to ask somebody with more research experience for support. You will need to connect with peers, experts, mentors, supervisors, and collaborators to ensure you are part of a research team that can accomplish your research goals.
You are likely to need to reach out to different people depending where you are on your research journey. You are likely to need to reach out to different people You may want to reach out to informally discuss some ideas or formally access advice services. You may want to start developing professional relationships or initiate formal collaborations.
Advice resources
There are a range of research advice and support resources available including:
- The NIHR provides free support and advice for health and social care researchers via their Research Support Service (RSS)
- The NHS Health Research Authority (HRA) has advice about planning and carrying out research
- The Council for Allied Health Professions Research (CAHPR) has a range of resources for practitioners who want to develop research goals
- The NIHR also has support for delivering research and discipline specific resources, for example:
- The Race Equality Network can advise on linking up with diverse groups.
Link up
Expanding your professional network and speaking informally to people involved with research can be helpful:
- The Council for Allied Health Professions Research (CAHPR) has a number of UK hubs and champions that could help you contact researchers in your region
- Link up with other NIHR-supported incubator hubs
- Get involved with rehabilitation research networks. For example:
- Society for Research in Rehabilitation (SRR)
- Community Healthcare Alliance of Research Trusts (CHART)
- Rehabilitation Alliances in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
- Contact us at the CRRN if you want to have an informal chat about research or link with a CRRN mentor.
Collaboration resources
We have compiled some resources to help guide and facilitate research collaborations:
- The NIHR provides guidance for collaborations in health care research
- Dementia Researcher - How to Network and Advice for Making the First Move
- Find research community research partners or organisations to work with
- Other guidance is also available for collaboration advice from Times Higher Education
- The Council for Allied Health Professions Research (CAHPR) supports collaboration between health professionals to strengthen allied health professional research
- Consult Directories of key researchers, for example:
- Contact peers, find a sponsor or contact research sites via the Research and Development (R&D) Contacts Directory
- Get in touch with regional Research Delivery Networks (formerly Clinical Research Networks) that aims to bring research to under-served regions and communities with major health and care needs, considering the need for research inclusion and for the benefits of research to be spread across the whole country.
- Collaborate with medical technology companies, NHS, universities, patients and public at one of 14 UK Health Tech Research Centres.
This Incubator is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The views expressed here are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
