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The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) has just launched a new ‘Virtual College’ Training Hub.

The Hub offers a one-stop-shop for career development and training opportunities across a wide range of areas linked to health and social care research – from research methods to planning for impact.

It will also include training opportunities and events from across our research themes.

The Virtual College is available for anyone to use, and is particularly aimed at those involved in health and social care research in the North East and North Cumbria.

The platform was developed following consultation with ARC NENC members and following feedback from our Training Needs Survey carried out in 2021.

You can access the Virtual College by following this link > Virtual College – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

More about our Training and Academic Career Development Strategy

Our training and academic career development programme aims to support and develop a strong network of researchers, practitioners and public partners involved in applied health and social care research across the North East and North Cumbria.

By understanding the training needs of our members, partners and stakeholders, and by utilising regional and national training resources, we will build research capacity at every stage of the research career pathway.

Through our training strategy, we aim to build capacity and capability in applied research and evidence-based care, to help deliver our vision of achieving ‘better fairer health care at all ages and in all places’.

We also aim to support evidence generation and knowledge mobilisation through skills development, networking, and specialist support.

Our early work includes:

• Establishing a training network across the region with academic career development champions linked to each of our research themes.
• Developing research skills in statutory and voluntary care sectors through training and funded participatory opportunities.
• Enabling Public Involvement and Community Engagement and developing systems to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion.

Longer-term objectives include embedding and sustaining activity so that training and support can lead to measurable action and impact, supported via investment and co-funding with partners regionally and nationally.

To find out more, please contact our ARC NENC Training Lead Professor Gill Rowlands, via [email protected]