University of Ulster welcomes 4 clinical research fellowships

An academic from the University of Ulster has welcomed the launch of four Clinical Research fellowships.

These are valued at €10,000 (£8,463) each for health and social care professionals and will help individuals to carry out a small-scale research project or activity in one of the areas related to palliative care.

These fields are symptom management, psychosocial support for patients and carers, research focused on specific groups and populations, health service research, and research that informs policy and practice.

Researchers at the All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC) launched the fellowships, which are open to health and social care professionals operating in clinical practice in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Therefore, experts eligible for them include physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, social workers and psychologists.

Applications must be handed in by the closing date of July 1st 2013, while individuals are expected to be in a position to begin their work by October 1st. It will need to be finished within 12 months.

Dr Sonja McIlfatrick, head of research at AllHPC, said: “AIIHPC is laying the foundations for a more collaborative and strategic approach to research on the island of Ireland with the recent establishment of the Structured Research Network.

“One of the Network’s key aims is to develop research capacity in palliative and end-of-life care with the ultimate goal of improving the palliative care experience for users, cares and the community.”

AllHPC is made up of a number of partner organisations, including hospices, health care agencies and universities, which are working to boost the experience of supportive, palliative and end-of-life care in Island.

The group recently added a new professor of palliative care at Queen’s University in Belfast, one of the institutions that is one of the partner organisations of AllHPC.

Kevin Brazil was appointed to the post, who carries a number of links with other research groups, such as the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines.

Posted by Ben Evans