Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust (CPFT) offers unrivalled opportunities for all trainees interested in research, including academic trainees and those on primarily clinical programmes.
The trust is allied with the University of Cambridge medical school and department of psychiatry. Both of these have been ranked amongst the best in the world in their respective areas. Professors across the age range in psychiatry (from child to old age) lead the department and have particular strengths in psychosis, depression and dementia using a range of approaches from basic science to epidemiology. Options to engage in research within the department of psychiatry include the opportunity to study for a higher degree (MD or PhD). There are also strong collaborations between the trust with related disciplines at the University including public health, neurology and genetics.
In addition to the University department the trust engages strongly with the NIHR to deliver national studies adopted to the clinical research network portfolios. This activity is centred around our own clinical trials centre, the Windsor Research Unit. In 2018/19 this unit recruited more than 2,000 patients to 60 different clinical studies. There are opportunities for trainees to take part in this work but also to use the infrastructure this gives to drive their own research ideas. It is possible to study for a higher degree whilst working in the unit. This work also interfaces with the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (the CLAHRC) in the East of England which provides further research opportunities for trainees looking to develop their ideas in clinical fields.
As an organisation CPFT has invested heavily in electronic patient records and informatics to collate routinely collected data which provides a rich resource for examining clinical questions. It is also one of few trusts in the country which provides all mental health and physical health community care. These two things combine to provide excellent potential for studying the interface between physical and mental healthcare at scale.
For further enquires please contact Dr Ben Underwood on: Ben.Underwood@cpft.nhs.uk