The CMHP-PRUK Research Award is a great opportunity for pharmacy professionals to undertake practice research for the benefit of patients with mental health conditions.
Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK) and the College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP) are working together to offer full or associate members of the CMHP the opportunity to receive a Research Award for projects which aim to benefit patients with mental health conditions, and which contribute to enhancing the quality of care with psychiatric medicines through improving pharmaceutical services or ensuring safe and effective use of medicines.
The next call for the Research Award is due to open in November 2024. To find out more about applying for the award, join our webinar on 28 November: booking link.
The CMHP and PRUK specifically wish to support projects in the following areas:
- Cross sector communication and interface working,
- Medicines safety/optimisation for those with mental illness by community, general practice or general hospital pharmacy teams,
- Relapse prevention and keeping well (including maintaining adherence),
- Mental health services in community and primary care, or equivalent areas, and/or
- Managing public health issues in mental health (for example physical health).
The partnership offers up to £20,000 for CMHP members to pursue research in line with the areas highlighted above, with a focus on future patient benefit. The research must not exceed 20 months duration and successful award holders will be expected to present their research at a future CMHP conference. Applications with a focus on substance misuse may be accepted provided the project aims to benefit patients with co-morbid mental illness.
To be considered eligible for submission the project must:
- Align to the CMHP-PRUK Research Award scope criteria described above
- Have a lead applicant who is registered with a professional regulatory body for pharmacy in their home nation (for example the General Pharmaceutical Council), and who is also a full or associate member of CMHP at the time of applying and will remain member for the duration of the proposed research
- Be completed between 12 to 20 months (unless under exceptional circumstances)
- Be based in the UK. Organisations outside of the UK are welcome to collaborate on projects, however the lead institution must be UK-based and the project must have relevance for the UK, and
- Request no more than £20,000. The judging panel may decide to award the total amount to one project or to one or more smaller projects.
Following submission, projects will be reviewed by an expert panel and one or more awarded funding according to the following criteria (see guidance document on the PRUK website for more details):
- Investigate novel research, which aligns with CMHP and PRUK organisational objectives/Research Award scope and adds value to the current research literature,
- Have a clear research question or hypothesis with potential to improve outcomes for patients/carers
- Have a feasible and robust methodology designed to meet the aims/objectives of the project
- Have clear, defined and measurable outcomes
Please refer to the CMHP and PRUK webpages for information about their organisational aims.
For more information and application details, please visit the Pharmacy Research UK pages:
In addition to the guidance provided on the Pharmacy Research UK pages, we have provided this CMHP PRUK award Frequently Asked Questions document, and a link below to the recording of a webinar held in January 2022. In the webinar Roz Gittins, Humankind shared her experience of applying for the award and her preliminary research findings. This was followed by Ardeshier Mofidi, Research Manager of Pharmacy Research UK who described the application process in more detail.
Apologies for the sound quality in parts of this video which was due to connection issues on the day.
2023 CMHP-PRUK Research Award
Dr Sion Scott, Lecturer in behavioural medicine, University of Leicester.
Project title: Development of The Determinants of Metabolic Side Effects Questionnaire (DMS-Q)
2022 CMHP-PRUK Research Award
Dr Natalie Weir, Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde
Project title: Building the evidence base for community pharmacy depression services: a systematic review and multi-stakeholder consensus exercise
2020 CMHP-PRUK Research Award
Not awarded
2019 CMHP-PRUK Research Award
Awarded to Roz Gittins, Humankind for the project: An exploration of the misuse of Over the Counter (OTC) and Prescription Only Medication (POM) by people accessing substance misuse treatment services
Previous awards (made under previous bursary scheme which did not involve
The 2017 research bursary was awarded to Asta Prajapati, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for their project 'Feasibility of introducing a medication Adherence Rating Scale (ARS) in clozapine clinic'.
This award did not run in 2016.
The 2015 research bursary was awarded to Kim Morral, an independent researcher who is exploring pharmacists’ views and experiences of providing pharmaceutical care to people with severe mental illness, in relation to both their mental and physical health.
This research was presented at the 2016 annual conference. For further information, please follow the link from: Saturday highlights 2016