Liverpool Health Partners (LHP) held its first Meet The Funders webinar, to support researchers with the submission of high quality bids to the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme.

The event was chaired by LHP’s Professor Tony Marson and speakers included Professor Kevin Munro, Chair of the North West Regional Advisory Committee for NIHR RfPB, and Charlie Delilkan, RfPB programme manager, who provided an introduction to the scheme and an overview of what the panel are looking for in a strong application.  

The webinar also featured Dr Mark Goodall from the North West Research Design service, who gave an overview of the support they can offer to researchers drafting an application.

He was followed by Dr Gill Rees of LHP SPARK (the Single Point of Access for Research and Knowledge) who explained how SPARK and local research and development offices can support financial and governance aspects of applications.

Four previous recipients of RfPB funding (Prof Jo Patterson, Dr Pooja Saini, Dr Andrew Sharp and Dr Janine Winterbottom) then described their experiences of successfully applying for funding, managing a successful research programme and some of their key findings. The workshop concluded with a brief question and answer session.

Following the morning session, Dr Mark Goodall provided one to one support sessions for three prospective applicants.

Please contact the RDS NW rds-nw@lancaster.ac.uk if you would like to arrange a session.

A recording of the workshop is available here and on the LHP website