Building Research Capacity: The NIHR ARC OxTV Internship Programme

Background 

‘Capacity building’ in health and care is the process of strengthening the abilities of individuals, organisations, and systems to perform high-quality research aimed at improving health and care outcomes.

Health without access to the opportunity, proper training and resources, researchers, healthcare professionals, students and – through these groups – organisations can’t build the skills needed for quality studies to provide quality care to patients and the public effectively. This gap slows down both research progress and care improvements.

To address this gap, the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley (ARC OxTV) established a programme to strengthen and build research capacity in the region.

The programme supports public health, health and social care professionals, and emerging researchers to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to carry out research within health and care systems across the Oxford and Thames Valley region.

A big part of the programme is the ARC’s yearly internship, in partnership with Health Education England (HEE). Interns get hands-on learning for real research projects. Mentors coach them to build expertise and gain research experience.

The programme trains both new and seasoned professionals. Interns gain the skills and knowledge to effectively carry out health research duties. This boosts their careers while also driving tailored study findings to improve overall research and care needs and services.

Internship overview  

Each year, the ARC hosts a diverse group of interns. So far, interns have come from backgrounds in social care, physiotherapy, and public health to match with the ARC’s six research themes. These include: improving health and social care, changing behaviours for better health and preventing diseases, applied digital health, mental health, helping patients manage their own diseases and novel methods to help aid and evaluate implementation. 

Interns participate in a placement under their chosen research theme. The placement duration is flexible, typically ranging from six months to one year. Interns receive funded time dedicated to the internship- usually one to two days per week. This funding aims to make it easier for people to be able to undertake training and / or carry out research whilst remaining in their current roles. For example, it can allow a healthcare professional to temporarily step away from their usual duties to dedicate time to research by covering their salary.  

Interns learn through practice, attending seminars, networking events, courses, and exchanging knowledge and experiences with their mentors and others within ARC’s research community. 

Intern experiences  

 The ARC gives interns more than just research experience. Interns highlight benefits that include: 

• Access to research resources (journals, databases, labs, etc.) 
• Networking with experienced scientist and research mentors within and beyond the ARC  
• Building connections for career and further education 
• Exclusive training opportunities to expand their skills and capabilities 
• Exposure to new knowledge and insights 
• Competitive career prospects through affiliation with Oxford University 
• Equipped for impact and success in future research endeavours 
• Supportive professional community throughout the internship and beyond
  

Interns who participated in this programme commented: 

The ARC OxTV internship has been a fabulous opportunity to meet and work with a variety of researchers, do some relevant training, and develop new contacts. But more importantly, it gave me the time and resources to develop the ideas and insights I had from my clinical role; to design an exercise intervention programme that can now be used for our patient group to increase their physical activity.
Stephanie, Clinical physiotherapist 

The opportunity to complete this internship has supported my own professional development and increased my skills, knowledge and understanding of how to undertake research. Taking part has reinforced the importance of using my own organisation’s data to review needs, so our systems can work better for children and families.
Emily, Social worker  

Programme impact 

• Our Public Health intern drafted an opinion piece to stimulate debate amongst public health professionals (with the ultimate goal of service improvement) on the role of digital interventions to increase uptake of healthy behaviours -having a healthy weight, getting active, quitting smoking and drinking less -at scale.    
• Our Social Care intern researched on childhood adversity and to date has reviewed 100 children. The data suggests adversity is impacting the child’s physical health as well as their emotional health, all of which impacts the health and education system.  
• One physiotherapy intern enriched the knowledge base in the field when she shared a presentation on using evidence-based co-design to develop a hybrid-based exercise intervention that aims to increase confidence to exercise in persons with haemophilia at the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders (EAHAD) conference. She won an award for best physiotherapy research presentation.
• Another is actively involved in research contributing to the analysis and links to key data sources on children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

Moving forward  

The ARC internship programme continues to develop and enables health and care professionals to actively drive research that addresses unmet needs. The kinds of unmet needs that, through the insights and understanding that, only those working in their profession day-to-day can identify.  

By engaging directly in research, interns develop the skills needed to address these health and care needs and to improve the delivery and quality of care and services. Their direct involvement ensures that research is applicable to real-world needs. 

Their real-world experience enables interns to go on to implement evidence-based practices in their future careers. From hands-on research, improving care through evidence, building technical skills, increasing opportunities for emerging researchers, and on-going recruitment, individuals have much to benefit as do the organisations for which they work. 

The ARC OxTV continues recruiting students and professionals interested in its key research themes. Internship opportunities and information are available on the ARC website.