Research blog: Maudsley BRC part of winning team at NIHR training camp

Pamela Jacobsen trained as a clinical psychologist and is currently researching her PhD at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry & Neuroscience at King’s College London.  She was selected to take part in this year’s NIHR Research Training Camp for doctoral students, which took place 6th – 8th July this year.

I’m a clinical psychologist by profession, having completed my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) here at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry & Neuroscience.   I am currently a NIHR Clinical Doctoral Fellow within the Department of Psychology.  My project is a feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT) of brief talking therapies for psychosis on psychiatric inpatient wards. 

One of the many advantages of being a NIHR Fellow is access to high-quality training and career development events.  I was therefore delighted to have the opportunity to represent the Maudsley BRC at this year’s NIHR Infrastructure Doctoral Training Camp. 

The Doctoral Training Camp is a three day intensive research “boot camp” designed to simulate the process of applying for a grant within a multi-disciplinary team.  At the end of day one, I was assigned to a group with people from Biomedical Research Centres all over the country, none of whom I had ever met before, which was certainly rather nerve-wracking.  Twenty-four hours later, this motley crew was expected to have produced a fully-costed grant application along with a presentation to take before the panel on the morning of day three. 

Miraculously, we somehow managed to pull together a coherent and credible application to the fictional “Making People Healthier Research Programme” Funding Call, fuelled by tea, biscuits and a healthy dose of deadline-induced anxiety.   Our proposal was for a feasibility study of using peer-led exercise interventions for adolescents in schools in deprived areas.   

We were delighted and not a little surprised, when after all nine teams had presented their proposals and been suitably grilled by the panel, our team was declared the overall winners.   We all felt proud of our efforts, and commented on how well we had come together as a team in so short a space of time. 

For me personally, I certainly really benefitted from the experience of working in a team; particularly having to relinquish some control (which can be challenging for me!) but learning to trust in the process of everyone applying their own strengths and capabilities to achieving the best result.  Now we’re just waiting for the £500,000 funding cheque we were promised…

Follow Pamela on twitter @pamelacjacobsen or read her blog at psychculturevulture.

The winning team members were: Pamela Jacobsen (NIHR Maudsley BRC); Rachel King (NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber); Lakmini Liyanage (NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular BRU); Gurdeep Mannu (NIHR Oxford BRC); Jamie McCarthy (NIHR Leicester Respiratory BRU); Stephanie Shoop (NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal BRU); Sophie Spitters (NIHR CLAHRC North West London) and the team's mentor was Professor Cath Exley from Newcastle BRC.


Tags: Training & capacity development -

By NIHR Maudsley BRC at 14 Jul 2016, 12:03 PM


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