Pharmacy Research UK published a new three-year strategy in 2019, designed to help provide a focus for our work on the prevalent issues impacting many healthcare areas, such as long-term conditions, medicines safety and digitisation.
Why have we developed a new strategy?
Pharmacy is one of the key building blocks of health provision in the UK, supporting the health of the nation in many different ways, from the work of local community pharmacies and hospital pharmacy, to specialist pharmaceutical care. But there is increasing pressure across all health services, including pharmacy, in meeting the needs of a population that is living longer, often with multiple complex conditions. Building the services that can meet those needs requires high-quality, focused research and evaluation, increasing the understanding of what makes a difference for patients, and how that support can be delivered more effectively and efficiently.
Pharmacy Research UK is here to make this happen, through funding capacity building and original research to help pharmacy and pharmacists improve the public’s health and deliver better outcomes for patients.
Our three-year strategy is designed to help us to focus our work and to deliver on our commitment to support important research that will drive change, and to support the early-career and aspiring pharmacy researchers to become the skilled research workforce for the future.
What else are we doing to support pharmacists in research, as well as pharmacy research more generally?
One of the core approaches to this strategy is to increase the opportunity for pharmacists and pharmacy researchers to apply for research funding. Alongside our annual call for awards and bursaries, we are also keen to provide further funding opportunities through more sustainable means.
That is why we are dedicated to collaborating with other organisations to provide matched-funded, larger scale grants and studentships focused on specific areas for research. We are in active discussions with several organisations and we will announce any new partnerships in due course.
We are looking into partnerships that offer opportunities for larger project scale funding to be offered, in addition to other partnerships that would allow a novice researcher to get on the research ladder and begin their career within pharmacy research.
The core themes for our research strategy over the next three years is outlined below:
- The pharmacist – workforce/skills
- The future of pharmacy
- Pharmacy and patients
- Safe medicines use
- Mental health and pharmaceutical care
- Pharmacy and long-term conditions
You can download a copy of our strategy on this page: http://pharmacyresearchuk.org/our-research/research-strategy/
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