As a previous EnRICH blogger, Claire Litherland, mentioned, there is tremendous enthusiasm for research in the East Midlands. She highlighted a few studies where East Midlands champions of care home research were involved, such as the PEACH study, that considers how to implement and maintain proactive care in homes. The projects she drew attention to served as a perfect starting place when I was asked to compile a list of care home projects funded by my regional Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) in the East Midlands. Although this started out as a somewhat academic exercise to contribute to a wider document of all CLAHRC-funded care home research across the country, it also represented an opportunity to turn the spotlight on all care home research happening across the East Midlands. After a few e-mails back and forth with colleagues, a call was put out to the East Midlands Research into Ageing Network (EMRAN) to identify projects appropriate to place in this document. The result is issue 16 in the EMRAN Discussion Paper series which serves a dual purpose:

Primarily, it is an open advertisement of what the East Midlands has to offer in care home research cataloguing a total of 21 CLAHRC and non CLAHRC funded projects. There is a breadth of research expertise the East Midlands has to offer and collating this into a tangible document is a great way to give credit to those working on such worthwhile projects, broadcasting their work to a wider audience. It might surprise readers to see several of these projects are ones not included in the ever expanding research portfolio of our resident care home guru Adam Gordon!

Secondly, it allows me to see at a glance which researchers have experience of care home research in the region. In my role as EMRAN coordinator, this is invaluable information in light of the increasing opportunities to collaborate on care home research funded by CLAHRC, other NIHR arms or those lesser known of funding sources like Dunhill Medical Trust or the Abbeyfield Society. I hope this outward facing document attracts interest from others seeking collaboration with researchers in the East Midlands. We have a veritable hive of research expertise ranging from projects seeking to improve the quality of care provided by care home staff, initiatives to improve the quality of life of care home residents, and clinical treatment of care home residents.

So I encourage you to avail yourself of this research brochure, available to read and download from www.nottingham.ac.uk/emran/documents/issue-16-emran-jan-2018.pdf. If you are interested in collaborating with East Midlands care home researchers, then please contact emran@nottingham.ac.uk – a timely invitation given the recent call from NIHR HS&DR to research ways of improving the participation and conduct of health services research in nursing and care homes at scale. More of that at: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-opportunities/1811-improving-the-participation-and-conduct-of-health-services-research-in-nursing-and-care-homes-at-scale/7895

Chris Craig is the EMRAN Coordinator for CLAHRC East Midlands at the University of Nottingham

Visit: nottingham.ac.uk/emran | @EMRAN_ageing | orcid.org/0000-0002-2037-4320