Eight new projects are set to benefit from more than £2m funding generated by NIHR, as part of their annual Research for Social Care call (RfSC).
The funding call forms part of NIHR’s commitment to improving social care through high quality research, with the additional funding a key step in producing necessary evidence and building further research capacity within the field.
The eight new projects funded range from research into parenting support for young fathers in prison through to investigating better ways to identify people who may be struggling with gambling addictions.
Many of the projects are unique and diverse in their methodology, together generating evidence to improve, expand and strengthen the way adult social care can be delivered for users of care services, carers and the wider public.
NIHR has a significant commitment to building and improving social care research across England, with the funding a core step in this process.
They also established the NIHR School for Social Research, which aims to develop the evidence base for adult social care practice in England, and the new NIHR Social Care Incubator, which provides opportunities for researchers to learn about social care, related research and the opportunities which exist for developing research knowledge, skills, network and projects in the sector.
Mark Harvey and Fran Leddra, Joint-Chief Social Workers for Adults, said: “We’re really encouraged to see the great range of research areas and methodologies funded in this latest Research for Social Care call. By supporting more early-career social care researchers, NIHR is working to build more capacity in this area and generate new evidence to bring real benefits to users of social care services, carers and the public.”
Run annually, the 2020 round of funding for the RfSC call is currently open for applications.
Details summarising the newly-funded projects from the 2019 call can be found below:
