UWE Bristol has been awarded the opportunity to deliver the ICA Mentorship Scheme from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The ICA Mentorship Scheme offers individuals holding doctoral or post-doctoral ICA awards the opportunity for free one-to-one clinical academic career mentorship by an appropriate mentor.
The scheme is positively received and recognised as providing a crucial layer of support to aspirant clinical academic awardees. As a result, and following agreements between HEE, NIHR and Versus Arthritis (a merger of Arthritis Care and Arthritis Research UK) mentorship through the scheme is also available to approved NIHR Fellowship awardees and nominated Versus Arthritis fellows.
UWE Bristol is in a unique position to be able to offer the ICA mentorship scheme through the combination of the UWE Bristol Business School (BBS), which offers accredited training in ‘Coaching and Mentorship’, and the multidisciplinary team of clinical academics that are hosted by the Centre for Health and Clinical Research (CHCR). The partnership across faculties within the university will provide an excellent opportunity to enhance and develop the existing ICA mentorship scheme.
The award commences 01 November 2021 and runs to October 2023, with the possibility to extend.
Fiona Cramp, Director of the Centre for Health & Clinical Research and Professor in Long Term Conditions, commented:
“We are delighted that UWE Bristol has been selected to deliver the mentorship programme for the ICA awardees; mentoring is an incredibly valuable aspect of the individual’s journey and will optimise their development during and after the funding period. We look forward to bringing together a cadre of clinical academic mentors from throughout the UK to work with us in delivering this exciting programme.”
Lynda Williams, Associate Director Stakeholder Engagement Bristol Business School and Bristol Law School, commented
“The Business School is delighted to work with our colleagues from CHCR in delivering the mentorship programme for the ICA awardees. We feel that our individual areas of expertise will complement each other well to provide an excellent partnership and learning opportunity for ICA awardees.”
Find out more about the scheme.
Information from the partners:
Health Education England (HEE) was established on 28 June 2012, working as a shadow Special Health Authority from 1 October 2012. It took on its full operational responsibilities from1 April 2013. It has five national functions:
- providing national leadership on planning and developing the healthcare and public health workforce;
- promoting high quality education and training that is responsive to the changing needs of patients and local communities, including responsibility for ensuring the effective delivery of important national functions such as medical trainee recruitment;
- ensuring security of supply of the health and public health workforce;
- appointing and supporting the development of LETBs; and
- allocating and accounting for NHS education and training resources and the outcomes achieved.
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The mission of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:
- Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care;
- Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services;
- Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research;
- Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges;
- Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system;
- Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries.
NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.