Professional Services at the Heart of Research

The Community and Primary Care Research Group has at its heart the Professional Services Team. You may ask, “Why do I need administration?” The answer is, more than you may realise! They are the wheels that keep the ‘well-oiled machine’ rolling along, and they do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that deadlines are met, research targets are completed and projects get the press coverage that they should when findings emerge. We work in partnership with researchers from idea conception through to dissemination of results, assisting researchers at every point of their research journey. What does this entail? When a researcher has an idea and wants to look for a funding source, or a funding stream is advertised that looks ideal, our team assists them to see if the idea can be taken further. Once funding streams are sourced, we are on hand to help the researcher form a team of multi-skilled individuals that can help hone the idea, and set the parameters and the mechanisms needed to carry out the proposed research. The team have in-depth knowledge of University of Plymouth procedures around bid submission, so can advise and guide on what is needed to gain the appropriate approvals before applications are finalised. The Professional Services team are the ideal people to liaise with partner organisations and their finance departments, building strong relationships with outside collaborators. We can help with inputting a bid onto the funder’s system, ensuring all information is collated and proofed before submission. The support doesn’t stop there, once a bid is secured, we help with legal documentation to get contracts in place with funders and collaborators, liaising to get agreements finalised.

The team have a lot of knowledge around the costs of undertaking research, and can give expert advice and guidance on Patient and Public Involvement costs (PPI), and almost anything else required for a research project to be carried out! Once a research project begins, we are on hand to advise and guide researchers around ethics, setting up PPI, financial information and expenditure and pretty much anything else that comes up along the way including audio transcription and complex document formatting. The team can also write Patient Information Sheets, Consent Forms and provide researchers with examples from other studies that can be adapted for new research projects. The team assist with recruitment of participants to studies, and can often be the first point of contact for those who want to get involved in research. Dawn Swancutt, Senior Research Fellow said that, “It’s a delight to work with people so thoroughly engaged with the research process, and aware of the patients we aim to support through our research. Our recent work with the patient advisory group was professionally managed, went smoothly, so much so that it surprised my colleague in Exeter that we could have public/patient feedback so quickly and helpfully in our research development.”

Conference organisation is another skill held by our team, having run a South West Primary Care Conference in 2017, as well as hosting the 2018 Annual Meeting of the South West Society for Academic Primary Care (SWSAPC). This gave the team a chance to exercise their extensive planning skills, and to show how to run two large scale conferences very successfully. The team contributed with expert organisation, including managing abstract submissions, organising parallel sessions, facilitating groups and delivering a key note talk at one of the events. In addition, we produced bespoke materials for the conferences that showcased the beauty of the South West Peninsula, and updated websites and social media to get people talking about these events. The team have designed and created web pages for various projects, and have been pivotal in constructing the department’s forward thinking and forward facing website. We also specialise in national and international travel, and can organise complex meetings at a variety of venues. With COVID-19, this threw up many challenges early on, with the team repatriating one of our colleagues who was visiting a location in Africa.

The team specialise in contributing to research journal articles, formatting them and seeing work through to publication. We aren’t too shabby on Endnote either, which can be something that needs to be mastered! In short, the team are an integral part of the completion of a research project and hold a wealth of knowledge and experience to guide researchers seamlessly through their work. HR processes and procedures can be hard to navigate, but our team have invaluable experience that they have gained over the years, overseeing recruitment from job description composition to advertising and recruiting to a post, and then the induction of new staff. They are there to help with the ‘nitty gritty’ of a project! The teams wide ranging skills allows them to work cohesively to ‘get the job done,’ and the team were Highly Commended for an NIHR CRN SWP Research Award in 2020, under the category of Research Administrator/Co-ordinator. Kerryn Husk, Senior Research Fellow, commented that with the team, “There isn’t really anything that isn’t made easier/more functional.”

We also support the Global Health Collaborative (GHC) where the team create a newsletter that is relevant, engaging and informative. They also arrange international seminars, maintain large databases and also liaise with students, staff and external contacts. Maintaining the GHC website is also a core part of the support provided. The team also provides support for the Integrated Academic Training (IAT) Programme, an NIHR funded programme for clinical specialty training posts in medicine or dentistry that incorporates academic training. This includes arranging honorary contracts, board meetings, Annual Review of Competence Progressions, networking events for trainees, arranging mentoring, liaising with Plymouth NHS Hospital Trust and Health Education England, as well as budget monitoring.

The team are all funded by short-term contracts, which are paid for by research project funding. Without this funding coming to the team, we can’t continue to provide this service. It’s really important that administration is included when submitting research bids, this will help the team to secure longer contracts and to continue to provide the first class service they do.