Home | NIHR Associate PI Scheme

welcome

Thank you

The Associate PI Scheme Central Team would like to say a huge thank you for attending the Associate PI Scheme Virtual Launch Event on the 3rd of November 2021.
We hope you enjoyed it and found it beneficial.

Frequently Asked Questions

You asked 325 questions via Slido. Phew, that kept us busy.

We tried our best to answer these questions during the event but here is the link to the most frequently asked questions and their answers.

Watch the recording

The event was recorded and you can now watch this below.

Please feel free to share this with colleagues who were unable to attend the live event.

For more details about the Associate PI scheme and how to get involved, visit the website:

NIHR.ac.uk/AssociatePIScheme

@NIHRresearch – Continue the conversation using #AssociatePILaunch

WATCH

Frequently Asked Questions

Please find the link here to the question most frequently asked at the Launch Event.

ABOUT

The Associate Principal Investigator (PI) Scheme aims to develop doctors, nurses, and health professionals to become the PIs of the future. The Scheme provides formal recognition of a healthcare professionals engagement in NIHR Portfolio research studies by granting Associate PI Status to successful registrants, endorsed by the NIHR and several medical Royal Colleges.

The scheme aims to give those who would not normally have the opportunity to take part in clinical research in their day to day/training role, the chance to experience what it means to work on and deliver an NIHR portfolio trial under the mentorship of an enthusiastic Local PI.

The aims of the scheme are:

To make research a routine part of clinical training.
To develop doctors, nurses, and health professionals to be the PIs of the future
To recognise and promote doctors, nurses, and health professionals engagement in NIHR portfolio research in a consistent manner

For full details about the Scheme and how to apply, please visit - For more details about the Associate PI scheme and how to get involved, visit the website: NIHR.ac.uk/AssociatePIScheme

AGENDA

Session Start (in recording)

2min 6sec

8min 30sec

17min 16sec

33min 28sec

1hr 00min

1hr 12min

1hr 30min

2hr 04min

2hr 16min

2hr 28min

2hr 41min

3hr 00min

Welcome

Dr. Willam Van’t Hoff

Importance of the NIHR Associate PI Scheme
How the Associate PI Scheme links with the aims of the NIHR

History and Development of the Associate PI Scheme

Dr. Richard Wilkin

Aims of the Associate PI Scheme

Prof. Jon Wadsley

How it works
Where are we now
How to get involved

Benefits of the Associate PI Scheme for the CTU

Dr. Laura Magill

Break

Benefits of the Associate PI for a study

Dr. Natalie Blencowe

Sunflower Study

Benefits of the Associate PI Scheme for the Local PI

Mr. Dale Vimalachandran

Benefits of the Associate PI for a study

Prof. Richard Haynes, Dr Samuel Hey, Dr Hsu Noe

The RECOVERY Study
With an Associate PIs perspectives

Break

An Associate PIs experience of the Scheme

Nichola Manu

The role of the Associate PI scheme as an apprenticeship to future trials leadership

Prof. Jane Blazeby

Royal Colleges perspective on the Associate PI Scheme

Prof. Peter Hutchinson

Looking Forward

Prof. Tom Pinkney

Next steps for the Associate PI Scheme

Q&A Session

Audience

SPEAKERs

Dr. William van't Hoff

Dr William van’t Hoff is the Chief Executive Officer at the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Coordinating Centre. He took up this position in March 2020. In his role, he provides leadership to the Clinical Research Network across England. Working in partnership, the Network delivers thousands of research studies with approximately 1 million participants each year, in the NHS as well as in social care settings throughout the country.

His previous post was as a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist and Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.

William has worked in NIHR since 2006, holding a number of positions. He is committed to patient involvement, inclusion and delivering the best research to maximise patient benefit. As NIHR CRN Clinical Director for NHS Engagement, he led an innovative partnership, including the R&D community and patients, to integrate clinical research into the CQC’s assessments of hospitals.

Professor Jon Wadsley

Professor Wadsley was appointed as Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield in 2004.. His clinical interests are in thyroid cancer, neuroendocrine tumours and pancreatic/biliary tract cancers, with a particular interest in molecular radiotherapy.
His research mirrors these clinical interests, with a particular focus on thyroid cancer and neuroendocrine tumours. He is a member of (and until recently chaired) the NCRI Thyroid Cancer Subgroup and is Chief Investigator of the SELIMETRY trial. He is Clinical Director of the Sheffield Cancer Clinical Trials Centre, Cancer Specialty Lead for the Yorkshire and Humber Clinical Research Network and NIHR National Specialty Lead for Radiotherapy and Imaging.
He has recently been acting as co-lead for NIHR Cluster F and has taken responsibility for the roll out of the Associate PI Scheme.

Dale Vimalachandran

Dale Vimalachandran is a consultant colorectal surgeon at the Countess of Chester in Northwest England and Associate Professor at the University of Liverpool. He runs a research group at the University of Liverpool which is exploring the local and systemic responses of advanced colorectal cancer to neoadjuvant therapy. He also has a research interest in diverticular disease and is one of the lead investigators for the global DAMASCUS study.
Dale has been the chief investigator for a number of other research studies including the HiP study which compared low Hartman’s procedure to intersphincteric APE in low rectal cancer along with the ReCaP study which looked at rectal cancer management during the Covid pandemic.
He is one of the current Royal College of Surgeons/ACPGBI sub-specialty leads for colorectal surgical research and is also the NIHR national specialty lead for surgical oncology.

Professor Richard Haynes

Richard Haynes did his pre-clinical medical studies in Cambridge before moving to Oxford for his clinical studies and qualified in 2000. He came to CTSU for a period of “out of programme” research in 2006 to work on the HPS2-THRIVE trial with Prof Jane Armitage. He completed his training in renal medicine in 2011 and was appointed as an honorary consultant at the Oxford Kidney Unit. Shortly after that he was appointed to the MRC Programme Leader track and he is now Programme Leader in the MRC Population Health Research Unit for the programme in Randomised Trials in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease.

Nichola Manu

My name is Nichola Manu and I was the Associate Principal Investigator for the ROSSINI 2 Trial from May 2019-February 2021 at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit awarded the Countess of Chester Hospital the Highest Average Monthly Recruiters in December 2019. My role as Associate Principal Investigator was recognised at a Regional level as I was nominated and awarded the “Research Rising Star of the Year” at the North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards 2020.

Professor Jane Blazeby

Jane Blazeby is Professor of Surgery at the University of Bristol and an Honorary Consultant Surgeon at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. She studied Medicine at the University of Bristol and undertook higher surgical training in the South West of England. Jane has a long-standing interest in patient centred surgical care and standards of surgery. She has developed and validated an international portfolio of patient reported outcome measures which are widely used in clinical trials in surgical oncology. She collaborates with surgeons, methodologists, trialists and patient partners to design and deliver randomised controlled surgical trials. She enjoys embedding methodological research into the trials. She is developing a of team academic surgeons and methodologists with special interests in evaluating surgery. She is working hard to establish evidence based surgical practice in the UK.
Jane directs the Bristol Centre of Surgical Research. The Centre includes the Surgical Innovation theme of the Bristol Biomedical Research Centre and Royal College of England Surgical Trials Centre. The MRC ConDuCT-II Hub for Trials Methodology Research was hosted in the Centre. Jane is Chief Investigator of the NIHR HTA By-Band-Sleeve study in bariatric surgery and she mentors and supports consultant surgeons to become chief and principal investigators. She is a member of the COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) management group. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Dr Samuel Hey

Sam is an Internal Medical Trainee who last year worked as a clinical fellow in infectious diseases, during this time he became involved in the Recovery trial as well as other urgent public health studies. He was supported to complete the API scheme for the Recovery trial and was recognised with the NIHR/RCP Trainee award for his contributions.

Hsu Myat Noe

Medical Training Initiative Doctor
Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire NHS Trust
Graduated in 2015 form Myanmar
Moved in the UK in September 2020
Joined NIHR Associate PI scheme in January 2021 for REVOVERY trial
Also participating in Heal COVID trial, QoL-COVID study and COPE-WEL study.

Peter Hutchinson

Peter Hutchinson BSc (Hons), MBBS, PhD (Cantab), FRCS (Surg Neurol) FMedSci is Professor of Neurosurgery, NIHR Research Professor and Head of the Division of Academic Neurosurgery at the University of Cambridge. He is Director of Clinical Research at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
He holds an Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon post at Addenbrooke’s Hospital with a sub-specialist interest in the management of neuro-trauma, specifically head and traumatic brain injury. He has a research interest in acute brain injury, utilising monitoring technology to increase the understanding of the pathophysiology of brain injury, and in the investigation and treatment of concussion. He also leads the international RESCUE studies evaluating the role of decompressive craniectomy in traumatic brain injury. He was awarded the Olivecrona Prize (the “Nobel Prize for Neurosurgery”) for his work on cerebral metabolism in acute brain injury).
He has co-authored over 500 publications (including NEJM, Lancet and Brain, and been lead applicant in over £15m of grants (including MRC and NIHR). He is joint editor of the Oxford Textbook of Neurological Surgery and “Head Injury – A Multidisciplinary Approach”.
He is Director of Clinical Studies at Robinson College, Past President of Clinical Neurosciences Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, Director of the Research Fund of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, Treasurer of the International Neurotrauma Society and Chief Medical Officer for the Formula One British Grand Prix.

Richard Wilkin

Richard is an Academic Clinical Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and Colorectal Registrar. He helped develop the Associate Principal Investigator Scheme as part of the West Midland Research Collaborative and is Chief Investigator of the SUNRRISE trial which successfully piloted the scheme. He continues to be part of the steering committee which oversees the running of the scheme.

Professor Thomas Pinkney

Thomas Pinkney is George Drexler and Royal College of Surgeons Chair of Surgical Trials at the University of Birmingham, and a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham
Professor Pinkney is Director of the Birmingham Surgical Trials Consortium (BiSTC) and the Birmingham Centre for Observational and Prospective Studies (BiCOPS). He is Chair of the IBD sub-committee of Association of Coloproctology of Great Birtain and Ireland (ACPGBI) and Vice-Chair of the Research Committee of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP).
Tom's research interests are predominantly in clinical and translational research in inflammatory bowel disease and surgical site infection. As a founding member of the West Midlands Research Collaborative, he maintains an interest in development of trainee-led clinical trials in surgery. He sits on the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) CET Board and the NIHR RfPB West Midlands Panel.

NIHR Associate Principal Investigator Scheme

Wednesday 3rd November, 9am - 12:30pm

welcome

Thank you

The Associate PI Scheme Central Team would like to say a huge thank you for attending the Associate PI Scheme Virtual Launch Event on the 3rd of November 2021. We hope you enjoyed it and found it beneficial.

Frequently Asked Questions

Watch the recording

@NIHRresearch – Continue the conversation using #AssociatePILaunch

WATCH

Frequently Asked Questions

ABOUT

AGENDA

Session Start (in recording)

2min 6sec

8min 30sec

17min 16sec

33min 28sec

1hr 00min

1hr 12min

1hr 30min

2hr 04min

2hr 16min

2hr 28min

2hr 41min

3hr 00min

Welcome

Dr. Willam Van’t Hoff

History and Development of the Associate PI Scheme

Dr. Richard Wilkin

Aims of the Associate PI Scheme

Benefits of the Associate PI Scheme for the CTU

Dr. Laura Magill

Break

Benefits of the Associate PI for a study

Benefits of the Associate PI Scheme for the Local PI

Mr. Dale Vimalachandran

Benefits of the Associate PI for a study

Break

An Associate PIs experience of the Scheme

Nichola Manu

The role of the Associate PI scheme as an apprenticeship to future trials leadership

Prof. Jane Blazeby

Royal Colleges perspective on the Associate PI Scheme

Prof. Peter Hutchinson

Looking Forward

Q&A Session

Audience

SPEAKERs

The Associate PI Scheme Central Team would like to say a huge thank you for attending the Associate PI Scheme Virtual Launch Event on the 3rd of November 2021.
We hope you enjoyed it and found it beneficial.