Categories for Greater Manchester Health and Care Research Awards 2023

1. Putting Participants First

This category recognises an individual or team that has gone the extra mile for research participants, patients, carers or service users. The nominee may have transformed the way patients and the public are involved or engaged in research. Their work may have a direct impact on changing patients’ lives or have transformed the way research is delivered to improve the experience of patients, carers, service users or members of the public.

2. Collaborative Working Accomplishment

This category recognises excellent examples of collaborative working across our region. It may be staff across an organisation coming together to enable successful delivery of portfolio studies. Perhaps teams have broken down barriers to find ways of working across organisational boundaries or worked collaboratively with different stakeholders to find innovative new ways of working to achieve demonstrable success.

3. Outstanding Achievement by a Team (sponsored by Medicines Evaluation Unit)

This category recognises an outstanding achievement by a research team. It may be a team that has really gone above and beyond what would normally be expected of them in order to achieve outstanding results. It may be a particular outstanding achievement, an exceptional contribution toward efficiency and effectiveness of operations, a special effort in promoting portfolio research, or an outstanding service to the research community.

4. Primary Care or Community Research Contribution

This category recognises a research team that has demonstrated how research is being delivered outside of the traditional hospital setting into communities and making more research opportunities available to communities living in our region.

5. Best Contribution to Research Delivery outside of the NHS

This award will go to a team or individual judged to have made the greatest contribution to research in a non-NHS setting in the last 12 months. It could be an NHS team or individual who has delivered research outside of the NHS, or invited people to be part of a study where the contact took place outside of the NHS. It might involve working with organisations such as community groups, local authorities, the voluntary sector or charities. It might involve collaboration with a partner from the private sector or Industry.

6. Best Public Engagement

What successful Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) work is happening across our region? Has a team or study recruited to a trial through proactive engagement outside usual methods, or worked with the public to ensure previously disengaged communities are more aware of research? This category’s aim is to recognise people who ensure our research is being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public - rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.

7. Exceptional Research Delivery Leadership

An individual who has shown strong leadership at any level. This may have been in frontline delivery, behind the scenes in coordination, as an investigator, in strategic management, or other relevant areas. They drove forward change when it was needed most and motivated staff to work together and achieve fantastic outcomes. They might have looked beyond their own organisation to lead collaboration across the Greater Manchester network for the good of local patients.

8. Inclusive Involvement Excellence (sponsored by Parexel)

An individual or team who rose to the challenge to promote diversity, equality and inclusion in research participation in order to target health needs. They recognised the obstacles to participation for different demographics in our local communities and took steps to provide equity of access for people to get involved in research

9. Transforming Research Delivery

An individual or team whose innovation, or good idea, resulted in positive change for research. Their ideas challenged regular ways of working and brought about positive change which would not otherwise have happened. They thought differently and achieved something which fundamentally made things better - either in the way research is planned or delivered, or in the participant experience. The innovation may have been a digital project.

10. Prioritising Wellbeing Award

This category recognises an initiative which has supported the wellbeing (physical health, mental health, or both) of colleagues working in research and/or support services. It might be a specific scheme or event, or a wellbeing programme that has been carried out over a period of time to support colleagues.

11. New to Research Award

Has an individual or team made an outstanding start to their career in research? Are they a rising star who’s already making a real difference and showing qualities expected of colleagues with much more experience? They could still be in training, or in the first four years of their research activity. Or do you know an individual or team who’s made an excellent impact through promoting and improving early career researcher involvement in NIHR research?