Research project - Palliative and End of Life Care Incubator

To inspire and support health and social care professionals to conduct research in palliative and end of life care

An Incubator has been created to help encourage more research in adult and children’s palliative and end of life care (PEoLC), particularly among professional, geographic and ethnic under-represented groups.

It will aim to stimulate, inspire, and support health and social care professionals and researchers to conduct more studies in care settings (acute, primary, community, residential and hospices) by:

  • Creating more and better networking opportunities for those pursuing research and clinical research careers.
  • Providing more career support, knowledge exchange and mentorship activities.
  • Embedding excellence in research of Patient and Public Involvement, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity.
  • Building inclusive and diverse communities of research leadership between academic and clinical settings, which will continue the Incubator’s work.

Professor Christina Faull, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Research Lead LOROS Hospice, Leicester and University of Leicester, and Professor Candida McCabe, Head of Education and Research at Dorothy House.

Hospice Local Leads: Dr Felicity Dewhurst, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Oswald’s Hospice, and Dr Joanna Elverson, Specialist Palliative Medicine Consultant at St Oswald’s Hospice.

NIHR Incubator Competition

The aim of the incubator is to deliver activities that stimulate, inspire and support health and social care professionals, non-clinician researchers, and research collaborators to conduct palliative and end of life care (PEoLC) research and pursue research careers.

This will be achieved through 6 objectives:

  • Building a professionally, geographically and ethnically inclusive network of early and mid-career researchers.
  • Develop an easy-to-use web-based platform and agreed social media processes for networking and collaboration, providing a ‘go-to’ place for those researching PEoLC.
  • Provide regular virtual networking, development opportunities, and sign-posting to career support.
  • Facilitate more mentorship including peer-mentorship opportunities for professional groups underrepresented in the PEoLC research community.
  • Coordinate development of collaborative grant applications to provide new, supportive opportunities for members and support career development applications (e.g. fellowships) with ‘friendly’ peer review and mock interviews.
  • Co-design a continuation strategy for long-term sustainability of the PEoLC research community.