Professor Anne Barton’s winning trainees

Professor Barton, training lead for the NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal BRU, recently attended the 5th Annual NIHR Training Camp in Ashridge, where she acted as a mentor for a group of clinical and non-clinical PhD students taking part in a competition to submit a grant application to a fictitious funding body.

NIHR-funded students from all over the UK attended. As part of the camp, trainees had one day to put together a research proposal, including a finance section, about which they were quizzed on the second day by a panel of experts.

Professor Barton’s group contained a podiatrist, a gastroenterologist, an oncologist, a physiotherapist and two trainees in imaging sciences but developed an application around dementia. Among very stiff competition, the group took first prize for ‘Best Health Research Funding Application’.

Professor Barton said of the experience, “This was a thoroughly enjoyable event and it was wonderful to see how students from very different training backgrounds and experience worked together to produce a comprehensive grant proposal in such a short time. It really highlighted the importance of recognising complementary strengths in team members as well as the benefit of effective teamwork. I would encourage all NIHR-funded trainees to attend future camps if given the opportunity”.