This award-winning project was funded by NIHR, delivered in partnership with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and formally evaluated with partners at Leeds Beckett University.
The project aimed to equip health visitors and school nurses to be research champions in their areas - with 6 core objectives:
- To create 0-19 Research Champion (Y&H) roles that develop the Champions as Community of Research Practice (CoRP) Leads, whilst concurrently establishing their respective local CoRP. A CoRP development programme will be devised to support this process.
- To facilitate events that create networking opportunities between professionals to enable collaborations to be established, to co-produce research and to discuss priorities with a focus on 0-19 public health research.
- To engage regionally with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a focus on two goals:
- To engage with students to help raise the profile of 0-19 public health research with a view to developing early career researchers.
- To establish links with potential academic supervisors/ researchers for research-interested practitioners to engage/collaborate with (e.g., postgraduate study, co-applicants on a bid etc). - To develop a sustainable prototype model for the CRN in Yorkshire and Humber (and other regions) to develop other successful networks, based on an evaluation of whether the model has been effective in its processes and in achieving its outcomes.
- To develop a web presence to increase our visibility, to disseminate information, to ensure the sharing of timely research opportunities, to signpost and facilitate connections, increasing reach.
- To develop further the project planning group of core members to operationalise the project deliverables regionally.
In 2023 and 2024 the project was finalists for two Nursing Times awards "Clinical Research Nursing” and “Public Health Nursing”. In 2024 the project won the Nursing Times “Public Health Nursing” award.