Press office

The NIHR Press Office Team creates media visibility for NIHR, its research, people and priorities, providing advice for:

• Journalists looking for expert comment or who are interested in finding out more about health and social care research

• Press officers preparing media relations for NIHR research

• Researchers interacting with the media and communicating their NIHR-funded work during the scientific publishing process.

The NIHR Media Lead and fellow press office members drawn from NIHR coordinating centres work closely with the NIHR Social Media Team, referring to guidance for blogs and comment pieces, media work (such as press release notification and current NIHR boilerplate) and NIHR writing style. They also liaise closely with media leads at the Department of Health and Social Care. 

The NIHR Press Office Team leads on:

• Publishing a steady supply of news items and blogs for the NIHR website

• Working with programme teams and researchers to build a pipeline of stories

• Providing input to stories being led by awards recipients and host institution communications teams where there is a focus on key NIHR priorities

• Building thought leadership around NIHR priorities through speaker placements and op-eds

• Supporting NIHR campaigns through broadcast and feature placements that raise public awareness of research

• Building the profile of NIHR leadership

• Establishing media partnerships across NIHR

• Response to questions or comment, with social media colleagues as relevant

• Advice on the NIHR boilerplate and other information about the NIHR for journalists and press officers.