The Great Western Clinical Research Alliance

The Great Western Clinical Research Alliance (GWCRA) is an ambitious visionary programme which will unite seven universities (including four medical schools, two dental schools and a veterinary (vet) school) and six English NHS Trusts/Welsh Health Boards (covering a population of approximately 8-million(M)) to enhance discovery science academic careers for all healthcare professionals (clinical academics) in South-West England and South Wales. Our initial focus will be on the immediate post-doctoral phase (within 5-years Full-time-equivalent [FTE] post-PhD/MD).
Building on our established GW4 consortium (University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University & University of Exeter) which already underpins a highly successful PhD portfolio for clinical academics (including the Great-Western-Clinical-Academic-Training-scheme for all health-care professionals [GW4-CAT-HP]); with excellent infrastructure, established collaborative-links and major biomedical discovery science strengths, we have included Swansea University with its complementary research strengths (including SAIL-population-databank and Institute-of-Ageing) and medical/nursing school. Additionally, Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of the West of England who train the majority of Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Professionals (NMAHP) in our region, are brought in to maximise professional inclusivity. We have also partnered with all English NHS-Trusts/Welsh Health-boards that map to our discovery-science universities. They are highly committed to being involved, will be part of our management team, and will fund 12-years FTE salaries for the scheme (>£600K contribution), to support post-doctoral development, positioning for intermediate-fellowship success and research independence.
A critical issue in developing clinical academic researchers is providing robust support during the early post-doctoral phase, a pivotal period for building research momentum and progressing to independence. This period is challenging for medics, but particularly difficult for dentists, vets, pharmacists and NMAHPs. We propose building on our existing nucleus of 46 doctoral and early post-doctoral fellows supported through GW4-CAT-HP to establish a vibrant regional discovery-science ecosystem to support our post-doctoral clinical academic researchers. The foundation of this will be the GWCRA post-doctoral academy. This will deliver an annual meeting uniting clinical researchers and fundamental-discovery-scientists, with innovation, translation & commercialisation experts to develop meaningful collaborations, and optimise opportunities to progress clinical-academic careers. It will facilitate near peer-mentorship and career surgeries for the group. Through this academy we will fund a variety of awards in a flexible manner. These will include immediate post-doctoral awards, stepping-stone Fellowship awards, returning from life-event awards, and collaborative Health-care fundamental-discovery-science primers. Integral to our approach will be supporting the development of an innovation, translation and commercialisation culture, through training and support.  We have partnered with Science Creates who support regional small and medium sized enterprise (SME) developments and are eager to help intergrate an entrepreneurial culture through our clinical academic cadre. They will facilitate a number of bespoke introductory Entrepreneurship boot-camps, offer 1:1 mentoring, and provide full support to accelerator awards for excellent ideas.
Critical to the success of this award is career interdigitation of research and clinical training for post-doctoral fellows. We have assembled a diverse multiprofessional group of university and NHS co-directors to manage this across clinical and discovery-science backgrounds. Furthermore, we will have a strong governance board with expert external advisors to support the RACR.
Our vision, by the end of this RACR, is to have a regional pipeline to promote and develop diverse world-class clinical discovery-science and scientists in a supportive vibrant environment. Ultimately this will span pre (including undergraduate exposure) peri and post-doctoral phases.