The group is aimed at trainees at any stage of their training from any specialty in the North of England who have an interest in child oral health research, with representation in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. Helen, founder of CONNECT and an NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Doctoral Research Fellow said, “CONNECT will provide an infrastructure and formal training to facilitate trainee engagement with research.”
The group is particularly keen to support trainees who have little dedicated time to undertake research, and those who are based in less research-active units. Through collaborating, CONNECT aims to engage with colleagues from a range of units and draw on the expertise of different teams. The group hope that this approach will help them to produce more meaningful research which will increase the likelihood of publication and contribution to the evidence base.
Helen continued, “We are grateful that so many of our senior academic colleagues have offered to support this venture by providing guidance and expertise for CONNECT members as they undertake research projects. Regardless of whether our members go on to pursue a career in academia, or not, CONNECT hopes to provide future specialists and consultants with a greater understanding of research.
“Anyone interested in connecting with us, which we would welcome, can find more information here: https://connectnorth.wixsite.com/connect.”
Claire Stevens, BSPD President, said afterwards: “Our conference had collaboration as a theme so I am delighted that the formation of the collaborative group of dedicated young clinicians was an outcome of the conference. With trainees of this calibre, the future of our specialty looks bright.”