New Manchester cohort welcomed on to NIHR CRN leadership scheme

A new intake of successful Greater Manchester candidates has been selected for the NIHR CRN Advanced Leadership Programme (ALP), including two staff members from CMFT.

The scheme is designed for research staff interested in leading change across the entire Clinical Research Network.

Following a competitive application process, six successful applicants were selected by CRN Greater Manchester for Cohort 2 of the programme, which runs until August 2018.

They met at CRN GM headquarters earlier this month for an overview ahead of the scheme getting under way in September.

The cohort consists of: Pat Lambe and Drew Norwood-Green from Salford Royal, Karen Tricker and Anam Asif from CMFT, Mfon Sam from Pennine Acute, and Julie Grindey from Stockport.

Over the coming months, they will be feeding back on their progress to provide an insight into what the scheme offers – and hopefully inspire others to apply in future years.

Anam Asif, Senior Clinical Trials Co-ordinator at CMFT, said:

I applied for the programme due to the great response from cohort one, from what I understood the programme was an amazing stepping stone to becoming an effective research leader,  I hope to become the leader that pioneers the way research is conducted and set-up at CMFT.  Better research means better patient care.

For 2017/18, the ALP has a national cohort of 60.

It aims to develop the leadership skills of staff managing frontline research delivery to ensure the CRN is equipped to face the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead.

It is structured as a series of modules and combines workplace and external learning with a strong emphasis on collaboration with peers, mentors and leaders from across CRN networks.

The aim is to build and enable a national network of Clinical Research Delivery leaders.

There is an expectation that participants will remain engaged with the programme to mentor, support and connect with their peers as the programme develops over the coming years.