Specialty Champions

General Practitioner (GP) Champions

A national objective of the primary care specialty is to increase engagement of GP registrars and First5 GPs with NIHR CRN Portfolio research. To do this all 15 LCRNs have identified and funded at least two named individuals in a GP registrar/First5 nurturing role to undertake research champion activities. Specialty Cluster C currently supports a national community of 42 GP champions. Champion activities are locally driven but common areas include increasing opportunity for cross specialty collaboration, embedding research early in a GP’s career and working with GP trainee networks and large practices. 

Health Services Research Champions

The Health Services Research National Specialty group has a champion  assigned for each network.  The champions support CRSLs by broadening the outreach activities which include portfolio balance, study quality, barriers to recruiting, engageent with HSR stakeholders, projects that benefit HSR, workforce development, continuous improvement and business intelligance. 

Local Imaging Champion (LIMC)

We have 20 LIMCs who expedite the development and delivery of imaging research to increase capacity, develop new techniques and deliver studies. 

ENT: Audiology Champions

There are Audiology Champions in each of the 15 LCRNs. Their primary role is to raise awareness of current and upcoming hearing, tinnitus and balance studies on the NIHR CRN portfolio within their region.  They also promote the NIHR audiology portfolio at national and international professional meetings and conferences and lead, coordinate and support training in research skills. They do this by:

• Organising or contributing to NIHR CRN portfolio development workshops relevant to hearing, tinnitus and balance care.

• Train and mentor audiology colleagues to become Associate Principal Investigators  on NIHR CRN hearing, tinnitus and balance related studies. 

NIHR Audiology Champions support the local Clinical Research Specialty Lead by ensuring the ENT specialty broadens its reach to the full range of hearing healthcare professions.

There is an increasing number of studies opening on the NIHR portfolio that require specialist audiology expertise. Audiology Champions speed up the set-up process of these studies, ensuring they are delivered to the highest standard.

If you would like to know more about any studies on the NIHR portfolio, or NIHR training, please visit the NIHR website or contact your local Audiology Champion . 

ENT: Speech and Language Therapy Champions

The NIHR ENT Speech and Language Therapy Champions (STENT) was established in 2020 to support new researchers and established academics to provide peer review, support funding applications, share ideas and provide development opportunities. 

There are currently 19 Speech and Language Therapists across nine local Clinical Research Networks (CRN) and this clinical academic workforce is continuously expanding since forming in February 2020. 

Find out more: Speech and Language Therapy Champions

Oral & Dental Health: Primary Care Dental Champions

Our Oral & Dental Specialty Group have put together a group of Primary Care Dental Champions, a group of dentists who work in the Primary Care setting and are interested or already take part in Research. The aim of this group is to get more Primary Care practices involved in Oral & Dental Health Research.

Cancer Subspecialty Champions

The NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) is made up of 15 Local Clinical Research Networks that cover the length and breadth of England. To help drive research into the different subspecialty areas each one has a subspecialty lead or subspecialty champion for each subspecialty who promotes and supports research within their subspecialty area in their local NHS Trusts.

At a national level these groups come together to manage the respective national subspecialty portfolio through a programme of subspecialty meetings organised by the CRN Cancer Specialty. The group actively engages with funders of research and other stakeholders to help ensure that there is a continuous pipeline of high quality research studies and the capacity to deliver these successfully in the NHS. They are also called upon as key opinion leaders to provide expert advice on the development and delivery of studies.

If you would like to get in touch with the subspecialty leads please contact: crnspecialtyclusterf@nihr.ac.uk 

For further information about the Subspecialty Champions, please visit the Cancer Subspecialty Areas page.