Research Support Service Hub delivered by King's College London and Partners

Mental health and brain disorders can cause problems in all areas of life, often beginning in childhood and lasting the lifetime. This hub aims to help researchers to improve people’s lives by understanding how to prevent mental health difficulties and find better treatments.

This hub believes in an open and supportive research culture and the sharing of expert skills in order to attract, train and retain the next generation of mental health researchers to ensure long term sustainability of the mental health research pipeline.

They welcome enquiries from across the whole of England and all disciplines within psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience, who are working in primary, secondary or tertiary care or the charity sector.  They are committed to supporting methodological research applied to mental health and neuroscience challenges, and welcome enquiries from methodologists and allied health professionals working in this area.

In collaboration with senior academics from across the hub partnership, a range of methodological expertise and support is offered at both the pre-award and post-award stage, including:

• Medical statistics
• Qualitative social science
• Health economics
• Clinical trials methodology
• IMP (pharmacy) management
• Operational support, clinical trials management, and study delivery
• Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE)
• Psychometrics and validating interventions
• Health informatics and mobile health (mHealth)
• Medical devices

If you would like support from the RSS Hub delivered by King’s College London and Partners, please book an appointment with the RSS Coordinator and select either pre-award or post-award. This will be an initial conversation to enable hub staff to direct you to the type of support you require, so please come ready with an overview of your proposed study.

• The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London is a leading centre for mental health and neuroscience research in Europe. The hub will be led from the Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics together with colleagues from the School of Mental Health and Psychology Sciences. It is closely partnered with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and together they host the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, the largest mental health specific BRC. King’s Clinical Trials Unit is a UKCRC registered trials unit with expertise across the health spectrum, notably in mental health and neuroscience trials. Academics and operational staff within KCTU lead and participate in methodology research, focused on statistical and operational methodology in clinical trials. All these groups are members of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre. 

• Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) is one of the largest specialist mental health providers in the country, providing a range of mental health services including addiction and recovery. GMMH also hosts a number of mental health research units, including the Psychosis Research Unit and the Anxiety, Depression and Psychological Therapies Research Unit (ADePT-RU). They are a member of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre. 

• The PRIMENT CTU at University College London (UCL) is a UKCRC registered trials unit offering academic and scientific input to studies alongside operational support, across multiple research themes including mental health, dementia and Parkinson’s disease. The unit is supported by an experienced team which includes trialists, statisticians, health economists, trial managers and data managers. The UCL Institute of Mental Health brings together interdisciplinary research and training strengths in mental health, spanning across 11 academic faculties and comprising of 15 research themes including mood disorders, neuroscience and substance abuse.  UCL is a member of UCL Partners Academic Health Science Centre. 

• University of Oxford is a world-leading centre of learning, teaching and research. The Department of Psychiatry consists of a number of research groups, including the Centre for Research on Eating Disorders, Translational Neuroscience and Dementia Research and Clinical Psychopharmacology. The university is also a partner in the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, which is a mental health specific BRC covering a range of themes including brain technologies, data science, dementia and depression therapeutics. The University of Oxford is a member of the Oxford Academic Health Partners. 

• The Leeds Clinical Trials Research Unit (CTRU) at the University of Leeds is a leading academic UKCRC registered trials unit. The CTRU supports studies across of a range of disciplines and is supported by a team of statisticians, trial managers and coordinators and data managers. We will be working closely with the Complex Interventions Division.