Structure of the NIHR School for Social Care Research
NIHR SSCR Director
The NIHR SSCR Director – Professor Martin Knapp (LSE) – has overall responsibility for leading, managing and directing the School, its affairs and activities.
Deputy Director
The Deputy Director – Professor Yvonne Birks (York) – deputises for the Director as needed and manages (on behalf of the School as a whole) researcher capacity-building.
Associate Directors
The Associate Directors of NIHR SSCR are university-based individuals who have made a sustained high-quality contribution to research on adult social care practice in England selected by the NIHR. There is one Associate Director from each of the five Core Member universities (in addition to the School’s Deputy Director): Professor David Abbott (Bristol), Dr Karen Jones (Kent), Professor Jill Manthorpe (KCL), Professor Catherine Needham (Birmingham), and Professor Catherine Robinson (Manchester).
The School’s Associate Directors of NIHR SSCR provide intellectual leadership for the School, both through membership of the Executive Group and through shared leadership of the School’s programme of research. They also act as ambassadors for adult social care research.
Management team
The Research Programme Manager – Dr Michael Clark (LSE) – supports the Director with operational planning and organisation as well as management of the School’s research programme. He supports the Deputy Director with the School’s capacity-building programme.
The Finance and Impact Manager – Anji Mehta (LSE) – contractual and financial administration, and management of the School’s knowledge exchange and impact programme.
The Management team is supported by an administrative assistant – Susana Sidders (LSE).
Executive Group
The Executive Group (EG) is the operational decision-making forum for the School, provides academic leadership, and is responsible for supporting the Director in the running of the School and reporting on its activities.
NIHR SSCR Senior Fellows
A network of Senior Fellows has been established, involving specialists in wider areas of disciplinary or methodological expertise relevant to adult social care practice within each of the seven Core Member universities.
NIHR SSCR Fellows
All individuals funded from projects commissioned by NIHR SSCR will be designated NIHR SSCR Fellows during and up to a year after the end of their NIHR SSCR-funded projects.
Advisory Board
The role of the independent Advisory Board is to advise and support the School’s Director on strategic matters. Board members also play an ambassadorial role for NIHR SSCR.
User, Carer, Practitioner Reference Group
A key aim within NIHR SSCR is to involve people who use services, carers, practitioners, policy makers and relevant others in all the stages of research. We therefore aims to ensure the active, informed engagement of people from each of these groups in all of its activities.
As well as there being representation on the Advisory Board, the School’s User, Carer, Practitioner Reference Group (UCPRG) advises the Executive Group on all NIHR SSCR research and related activities, including identification of research questions, reviewing proposals, participating in other ways in the commissioning of research, reviewing reports and other outputs, and communicating findings so as to have an impact.
