Collaboration

Some GP practices have found it helpful to collaborate with other practices to carry out research. This could be a group of practices within the same Primary Care Network, for example.

Collaboration enables practices to share some resources, or have one practice take the lead in research for the group of practices (either for all research or in turns per study).

A group of practices may have one practice which has more research experience and this can be an effective way to allow other less experienced practices to become involved.

Since a group of practices have a greater combined patient list, they may be in a better position to be selected by research teams looking for new sites to deliver their study.

Some studies enable practices to operate as Patient Identification Centres (PICs) where one practice is the site where the research activity takes place, and the other practices simple identify potential participants from their patient lists.

Collaboration with other practices may also be useful if an application is being made for funding such as Primary Care Infrastructure Funding from the Clinical Research Network (CRN).

Funding may allow a group of practices to appoint a Research Administrator or Research Nurse to support and/or deliver research within the practices.

You may also wish to access the FutureNHS platform. FutureNHS is "a collaboration platform that empowers those working in health and social care to safely connect, share and learn across boundaries." FutureNHS is open to those working in or for health and social care: https://www.england.nhs.uk/futurenhs-platform/