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SPCR Trainees

Group photo of attendees to the 2022 Annual Trainees Event. Taken outside the Denise Coates building, Keele University.All NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR)-funded Fellows, PhD students and recipients of bridge- and seedcorn funding are part of the SPCR Trainees community. 

Prof Steph Taylor is the Academic Development Training Lead and Prof Hazel Everitt the Deputy Lead. They are part of the School's Executive Board and take leadership on the capacity development programme. They are supported by Training Leads based at each member and the SPCR Directorate.

Being part of the SPCR Trainee community and being hosted at one of the Schools' members comes with various opportunities and benefits.

TRAINING

On top of training opportunities provided by your host organisation, you will have additional access to training as SPCR Trainee:

  • The SPCR organises an online Masterclass series. This will include training on areas of expertise within the SCPR, such as: interrogating primary care research databases, the challenges and opportunities of primary care research, building a career in academic primary care, and how to influence practice and policy. Some sessions are open to everyone, others are exclusive to SPCR Trainees. 
  • The School organises an annual 2-day in person Trainees event where everyone gets together and attends training sessions and research presentations. Previous training sessions included grant writing, building a career in academic primary care, impact and patient and public involvement and engagement.

If you have ideas for training or might want to deliver something yourself, you can join a committee which supports the SPCR Directorate in organising events for the Trainees. 

NETWORKING

The annual Trainees event is a great networking opportunity to meet both early career and senior researchers in primary care from across the SPCR membership. You will have additional (online) networking opportunities with i.e. other Trainees who started their project around the same time as you and fellow Trainees from different career stages within your organisation. Networking initiatives will be provided both by the SPCR and the host organisation.

FUNDING

Doing your Fellowship or Studentship at one of the SPCR members comes with additional funding opportunities, exclusive to researchers based in the School:

Additionally, all Trainees can apply for additional funding to cover open access fees to publish results of their SPCR-funded work in high-impact journals.

MENTORING

The SPCR works alongside Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) to provide additional capacity for SPCR Trainees. This builds on the success of the SAPC mentoring scheme and provides independent mentoring opportunities within the School.

The School has since set up many mentor-mentee relationships and received favourable feedback on the programme. Mentors are often from different disciplinary backgrounds and from different departments. This facilitates growth in broader career progression aspects instead of focussing on the smaller aspects of developing as an academic. One of the aims of the scheme is to help mentees to identify possible career pathways and to find career progression opportunities.

The School also provides training opportunities for researchers who are interested in taking on a mentoring role.

NIHR ACADEMY

Being a SPCR Trainee will also make you a member of the NIHR Academy. The NIHR Academy has several initiatives to support their community which will become accessible to you:

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF TRAINEES

SPCR trainees are expected to:

  • Attend the annual School trainees’ meeting 
  • Complete progress reports twice a year of your research and training
  • Complete a final report at the end of your award with follow up on ResearchFish
  • Inform the SPCR about your publication before it's published
  • Attribute the SPCR and NIHR correctly in your research publications and presentations
  • Inform the SPCR if your circumstances change, for example, you plan to move to part-time, you are on extended sick leave, maternity leave, or the dates of your award need to be amended