New funding to strengthen regional infrastructure for public involvement in research in Greater Manchester

The Public Involvement leads from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) infrastructure across Greater Manchester have successfully been awarded £10k from NIHR to support, learn from and strengthen regional infrastructure for involvement, engagement, and participation in health and care research.

The proposal has been co-developed with members of the Greater Manchester VCSE Leadership Group, which represents the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector across Greater Manchester. The work is being progressed by the Greater Manchester VCSE Population Health Group, which is co-chaired by Charles Kwaku-Odoi of Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN), as a first point of contact.

This builds on previous engagement with the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO), Healthwatch Manchester and Macc (Manchester Community Central).

The £10,000 funding will be devoted to strengthening strategic and operational relationships for patient and public involvement between the Greater Manchester VCSE sector and the NIHR research infrastructure.

Dr. Bella Starling (Director of Vocal)

"Greater Manchester is a vibrant and varied region, rich in community life, heritage, science and culture. It's vital that we work together across all these sectors to produce the best health research, most relevant to the needs of our population”.

 

There will be a focus on co-creating a programme of partnership approaches based on the needs of Greater Manchester communities, to maximise collaboration across health and social care research activity. All parts of the local infrastructure will be coming together to map and learn from existing areas of good practice, strengthening existing and forming new relationships and networks.

The new funding from NIHR, will help to provide a platform to bring together the Greater Manchester VCSE sector and the local NIHR public involvement and engagement infrastructure co-create an action plan to cement better partnership working between Greater Manchester health and care research teams and VCSE organisations.

Charles Kwaku-Odoi, (Chief Officer of CAHN)

“The Greater Manchester VCSE Leadership Group which represents over 17,000 organisations across the region is delighted to be collaborating with academic partners to ensure that the lived experience of local people influence and shape research now and in the future. The excellent world-leading research undertaken in Greater Manchester must benefit local residents, and that is why there is overwhelming support for this co-produced collaboration”.

Prof. Caroline Sanders, (ARC-GM Lead for Patient & Community Involvement and Engagement and Professor of Medical Sociology at The University of Manchester),

“The VCSE sector has been especially pro-active in tackling new challenges and worsening health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding enables us to strengthen our partnerships and shared goals, especially to address health inequalities going forward with community voices at the heart of research and action.”

More information about all of the Greater Manchester NIHR Public Involvement & Engagement infrastructure can be accessed from the websites below.:

• NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM) Public and Community Involvement and Engagement Theme
• Vocal
• NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre
• NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre
• NIHR Older people and Frailty Policy Research Unit
• NIHR Research Design Service North West
• NIHR School for Social Care Research
• NIHR Clinical Research Network Greater Manchester
• NIHR School for Primary Care Research

Published 12th October 2022