The Trust has active research in all Departments and empirical research is required within many of the training courses. In order to manage the research portfolio efficiently we have distinguished different "levels" of research. (There is no implication that one is hierarchically superior to another: we like to think that all work at all levels is carried out to the highest standards and work from all levels can have major impact.) The levels are:
"professional" research. This is research led by one or more researchers with an established history of publishing research in influential peer-reviewed journals and winning external competitive research grant funding.
Clinical research. This is work done usually by senior clinical staff traditionally largely secondary source, case report and theory development but increasingly work drawing more on primary empirical data and also work addressing clinical governance issues.
Doctoral research. This is work done by students, and staff, registered for research, clinical or professional doctorates.
Masters research. This is work done by students on the many Masters courses ran by or with the Trust.
We have been working hard in the last two years to development research governance methods that work appropriately for the different durations, flexibility and resource constraints of the different levels. The move from five research activity areas to three programmes has been designed to a large extent to promote greater creative cross-fertilisation across the levels within the programme areas.
