Research Capacity Building – Older Persons Emergency Network Metro North

The strategic vision for our research program is to support early and experienced clinical researchers to participate in and contribute to high quality, robust, research activities and develop their research skills and knowledge through enrolment into higher degrees in research and participation in Older Person Emergency Network (OPEN) implementation and evaluation activities.

The proposed Capacity Building Grant will provide the opportunity to build research capacity and capability whilst strengthening OPEN’s research culture and further embedding research into our everyday practice. Funding will support the employment of a suitably qualified research officer (RO) (health practitioner, nursing or academic stream) to be mentored by the OPEN research team. This will include supporting the clinical OPEN team’s novice researchers to develop their research skills, encourage individual pursuit of higher degrees, leading journal clubs, preparing ethics and governance applications, contributing to writing protocols, carry out data collection, assist clinicians with research studies and be responsible for leading the translation of research findings into practice. RO support will also enable OPEN senior researchers time to focus on preparing grant applications to further build capacity through grant funding.

The key measurable outcomes we expect to achieve include support for the currently active five funded and 19 unfunded research projects at various stages of preparation. All of these projects are underpinned by an implementation framework to understand the real-world applications of the proposed research. The RO role will be responsible for obtaining ethical, governance and contractual approvals, to carry out the data collection for key pilot projects to inform large multi-centre trials where competitive grants will be sort.

Our long-term goal is to prove the value of the RO role leading to a permanently funded position well beyond this grant period with sustained research growth within the OPEN team.