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New funding to support regional Children and Young People’s Research Partnership

The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) ARC NENC has been awarded a NIHR Programme Development Grant of over £150K to develop a North East and North Cumbria Children and Young People’s Research Partnership.

The scheme aims to ensure that children and young people are directly involved in shaping a research agenda for the future.

The programme will be co-delivered by Investing in Children, alongside researchers from the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria, Newcastle University and Lancaster University.

Young people have been key partners in co-developing the project, and work to shape the partnership has involved young people’s voluntary sector organisations from across the region including the Cumbria Youth Alliance, Youth Focus North East and North East Youth.

In addition to this, the Young Person’s Advisory Group North East (YPAGNe) will be involved in working with primary school children as part of the project.

The YMCA George Williams College will support the co-development of an Evaluation Framework for the partnership which will be led by young people.

The funding submission for the Programme Development Grant was co-produced with young people and they will continue to co-produce all elements of the project.

Work is now underway to build the partnership, which will start with the recruitment of young people, who will be supported with training and capacity building to ensure that members of the partnership have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to understand health and care research.

Work will also begin to understand the research landscape in the region and to identify processes and mechanisms to be able to influence research priority setting.

This activity will build on existing work and current processes and structures to ensure that there is a long term, sustainable role for the Regional Research Partnership.

The funding for the partnership runs for 18 months, from September 2024 until March 2026.

Dr Felicity Shenton, Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) Manager for the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria, said:

“We are delighted to have been awarded this funding. The whole project has been co-developed from day one with young people and with VCSE young people’s projects. It is an exciting opportunity to ensure that children and young people are in the driving seat and that they are involved in shaping the research agenda in the future.”

Opportunities will be available in 2025 for wider involvement of children and young people and young people’s groups.

To find out more please contact: [email protected]