Roundtable discussions
Sometimes the ability to advance our practice and influence others requires good old-fashioned discussion. The Forum is all about community relationships, connecting members to work together and virtual discussion forums are great for this purpose.
Roundtable discussions can be based around new or emerging hot topics, tricky areas of practice or just facilitated ‘group thinking time. We can also arrange for discussions to be with policy makers, experts and regulators in some cases. Of course we hope that all meetings will result in groups to take forward outputs or resources to share with the wider community but this is not the first purpose.
Joint RDF and ARMA roundtable discussion - 3rd February 2021 from 11.00am - 12.00pm
Importance of Team Science and systems leadership in biomedical and health research
In January 2020, the Academy of Medical Sciences released the report – Transforming health through innovation: Integrating the NHS and Academia https://acmedsci.ac.uk/policy/policy-projects/nhs-academia-interface
One of the actions set out in the report, which the Academy believes is essential for enhancing the interface between the NHS and the UK’s academic biomedical and health research sector, is streamlining research through Joint R&D Offices.
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly raised the profile and importance of medical science and research, and in particular Team Science where colleagues from across the research systems came together to research, develop, implement and adopt – at unprecedented pace and scale, a vaccine programme. This collaborative approach allowed the NHS to be the first healthcare system in the world to offer the vaccine in December 2020.
The joint ARMA/NHS R&D Forum Session on 3 February between 11:00 and 12.00pm will focus on the importance of Team Science and systems leadership in biomedical and health research.
Hear from:
- Chris Duncan, a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow and Honorary Consultant https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/people/profile/christopherduncan.html about his experience as the Newcastle PI for the Oxford Vaccine Study and the importance of Team Science
- Angela Topping, Head of the Newcastle Joint Research Office https://www.ncl.ac.uk/research/support/people/profile/angelatoppingnclacuk.html#background about her experience as Head of a Joint R&D Office and how this allowed Newcastle to be a pioneer in Medical Research and be one of the best research performing Trusts nationally
- Simon Denegri, Executive Director of the Academy of Medical Sciences https://acmedsci.ac.uk/about/administration/staff-directory/executive-director/simon-denegri about the science of team science, next steps in relation to their January 2020 report and how we can support the agenda
- Catherine Adams from the Health Research Authority about lessons learned during the COVID pandemic and how, as a regulator of health Research, they can work closer with the research community to reduce bureaucracy and truly embed research into everyday clinical practice.
This one-hour session will have time for panel Q&A and we encourage you to submit questions in advance of the session. Please email any questions to enquiries@arma.ac.uk by 14.00 on 1 February.
Joining details will be emailed out one week before the event to all who have registered. Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.
This is the first session of what we hope will be many more where we can bring colleagues from the Academic and NHS research communities to shape and support the UK research and innovation landscape though collaboration, teamwork and common purpose.
You do not need to be an ARMA member to attend this free event. To book your place please click on the button below.
Summaries of Previous Roundtables
18 November 2020: ETC Virtual Round Table with Trudi Simmons Read More We were lucky to have an hour’s Q&A with DHSC head of research finance Trudi Simmons before she leaves for her retirement this week. James Hughes, Research Manager at NHS England & Improvement also joined us to field some of the questions. 41 people took part during the hour as we went through 10 questions submitted by the community, which included queries about supporting Chief Investigators with their understanding of the requirement for funding for costs at site, as well as the management of high costs, balancing savings when the costs are elsewhere, values in the SoECAT and the meeting of intervention costs delivered by partners to primary care. Trudi reflected on how far we have moved on by reducing the block from ETCS and thanked the community for the difference made. James reiterated that the team still wish to hear about challenges to ensure the policy is working as well as it can and a number of colleagues volunteered to take part in the monthly feedback calls. If you have any on-going reflections you can note them in our new feedback section here. The main message was that all policy decisions have been made to be as pragmatic as possible and that decisions on attribution will remain in line with the AcoRD guidance. New guidance on ETCS is due to be issued in the coming weeks and we are pleased to host a second Q&A once it has been released. This was the first in a series of virtual Forum roundtables in planning. If you would like to host a discussion or suggest a topic please do so here |
COVID Coffee Chat
Join colleagues at 11am every Thursday morning.
Every week during lockdown the R&D Forum working group members have hosted a virtual coffee chat to review developments, to share practice and to support each other whilst quickly developing a national perspective of the practical issues affecting the development and delivery of research, including how these have changed as the UK-wide response has developed.
The groups from across the R&D management, support and leadership community have thus been uniquely placed to provide a meaningful contribution to the development of the national approach and to help with the national policy and guidance being produced. The R&D Forum will continue to support the Department of Health & Social Care and partners across the system to deliver the required COVID-19 research in a speedy and safe manner.
Whilst these calls have been set up during the COVID-19 pandemic they are also a great way of connecting and sharing all activities with peers


Influence & Representation
