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The CMHP-PRUK Research Award

The 2024 PRUK funding round will launch in January. Exact dates will be announced soon.

The CMHP-PRUK Research Award is a great opportunity for pharmacy professionals to undertake practice research for the benefit of patients with mental illness.

Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK) and the College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP) are working together to offer full or associate members of the CMHP the opportunity to receive a Research Award for projects which aim to benefit patients with mental illness, and which contribute to enhancing the quality of care with psychiatric medicines through improving pharmaceutical services or ensuring safe and effective use of medicines.

The CMHP and PRUK specifically wish to support projects in the following areas:

  • Cross sector communication and interface working,
  • Medicines safety/optimisation for those with mental illness by community, general practice or general hospital pharmacy teams,
  • Relapse prevention and keeping well (including maintaining adherence),
  • Mental health services in community and primary care, or equivalent areas, and/or
  • Managing public health issues in mental health (e.g. physical health).

This partnership offers up to £20,000 for CMHP members to pursue research in line with the areas highlighted above, with a focus on future patient benefit. The research must not exceed 20 months duration and successful award holders will be expected to present their research at a future CMHP conference. Applications with a focus on substance misuse may be accepted provided the project aims to benefit patients with co-morbid mental illness.

To be considered eligible for submission the project must:

  • Align to the CMHP-PRUK Research Award scope criteria described above
  • Have a lead applicant who is registered with a professional regulatory body for pharmacy in their home nation (e.g. the General Pharmaceutical Council), and who is also a full or associate member of CMHP at the time of applying and will remain member for the duration of the proposed research
  • Be completed between 12 to 20 months (unless under exceptional circumstances)
  • Be based in the UK. Organisations outside of the UK are welcome to collaborate on projects, however the lead institution must be UK-based and the project must have relevance for the UK, and
  • Request no more than £20,000. The judging panel may decide to award the total amount to one project or to one or more smaller projects.

Following submission, projects will be reviewed by an expert panel and one or more awarded funding according to the following criteria (see guidance document below for more details):

  • Investigate novel research, which aligns with CMHP and PRUK organisational objectives/Research Award scope and adds value to the current research literature,
  • Have a clear research question or hypothesis with potential to improve outcomes for patients/carers
  • Have a feasible and robust methodology designed to meet the aims/objectives of the project
  • Have clear, defined and measurable outcomes

Please refer to the CMHP (https://www.cmhp.org.uk/about-us/charitable-aims/) and PRUK (https://pharmacyresearchuk.org/about-us/our-story/) webpages for information about their organisational aims.

For more detailed information and to apply for this award, please download the CMHP-PRUK Research Award guidance and application form.

  • CMHP-PRUK Research Award Guidance Document 2023 (available to download in January)
  • CMHP-PRUK Research Award Application Form 2023 (available to download in January)

For further information on the selection process, please see how we fund research. If you are unable to download any of the documents above please contact us.