Research and Development

Community Research Team

The NHS aims to provide the highest quality healthcare services possible. Research is how we develop new treatments and knowledge to provide the best care and a healthier community for our patients. Research helps ensure that high-quality service provision is supported by evidence-based practice

The Community Research Team work to make sure that any research that takes place involving patients, service users and staff is of the highest quality. Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust aims to be a highly research active Trust, offering our patients, service users, staff and local communities' access to and the chance to participate in research that is relevant and applicable to them. We are a multidisciplinary research team, working from West Pottergate.

We provide guidance and support to all NCH&C staff, as well as external researchers, in the management and approval of research. We support the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) and other research activity involving our staff and our patients. The goal of this research is improve the services delivered in this community and across the NHS.

We aim to:

• Support existing research activity.
• Engage and support new teams to become involved in research.
• Develop links with local universities and other external organisations.

 

Anna Lartey - Community Research Manager 

Stephanie Tuck - Research Occupational Therapist

Donna Clements - Research Nurse

Laura Towers - Research Nurse

Julia Fromings Hill - Research Nurse

Louise Gilbert - Research Physiotherapist

Denise Reece - Research Nurse

Cathy Mingay - Bank Research Physiotherapist

Gail Lonsdale - Bank Research Physiotherapist

Sara Heritage - Bank Research Occupational Therapist

 

Agile Research Delivery Team

We are the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Primary Care Research and Development Team for Norfolk and Waveney ICB, kindly hosted by Norfolk Community Health and Care Trust.

Working from West Pottergate Health Centre, our Team, comprising of 3 Research Nurses, 1 Research Practitioner and 2 Administrators, bring the benefits of research to patients in the wider primary care settings, such as GPs, Pharmacists and Health Visitors to offer patients in within these primary care settings unprecedented opportunities to become involved in high quality clinical studies.

Within our team, the Research Nurses/ Research Practitioner, acts as a link between the GP practice and the study teams, reaching out to all demographic groups to support the patients embarking on their research journey.

The Primary Care Specialty has successfully recruited across a range of conditions and complex interventions. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, we developed a strategy to engage with all practices in Norwich. This entailed identifying covid patients on a daily basis, contacting them and inviting them to participate in an Urgent Public Health study. This resulted in the highest recruitment from any participating group in the country for which we received the coveted 'Breaking Boundaries' award.

For more information on Primary Care Research, please click here

We also support research delivery in Wider Care and Community settings.  We work closely with Care homes, Schools, Hospices and also support our Community and Primary Care research colleagues.

 

Kirsti Withington - Locality Manager

Chloe Curtis - PCR Administrator

Helen Gerrish - Clinical Research Nurse

Suzanne Walker - Clinical Research Nurse

Alison Davie - Clinical Research Nurse

Denise Archer - Clinical Research Practitioner

Roselyn Enesi - Research Nurse

Harley Birchenall - Research Facilitator and Liaison Officer 

Victoria Berryman - Research Nurse

 

 

 

Patient Research Champion (PRC)

                                          

Community research projects

Project Short Title	IRAS Number	Project Full Title	Project Summary	Planned Recruitment End Date	Project Site Status	Project Type
COMMITS	261352	Confirming the Mechanism of Motivational Interviewing Therapy after Stroke: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial	This research intends to help people who have had a stroke come to terms with their stroke and reduce depressive symptoms, a common problem after stroke. A type of talking therapy (counselling) called Motivational Interviewing-Based Intervention (MIBI) could be beneficial in helping stroke survivors adapt to life after a stroke. The aim of this study is to determine if MIBI is an effective and cost-effective approach for helping people who have had a stroke.	31/07/2025	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
EEG	136640	EEG based Awareness Detection and Communication in Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness and Physical Disability	Severely altered consciousness most often occurs as a result of brain injury. We have gathered evidence that electroencephalogram (EEG)-based bedside detection of awareness is possible using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology.	tbc	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Families Project (PFP)	162268	Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Families Project (PFP)	The aim of the study is to identify new genes that predispose or cause Parkinson's Disease, Parkinsonism, and other movement disorders.	01/03/2030	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
The ELSA study	309252	The ELSA Study: EarLy Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes	We propose to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a system for identifying children in the general population at risk of type 1 diabetes (T1D).	31/08/2025	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
TRICEPS	308254	An efficacy and mechanism evaluation of transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation for upper limb recovery post-stroke - a randomised, controlled, multi-arm, multi-stage, adaptive design trial	TRICEPS aims to determine whether Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TVNS) paired with rehabilitation therapy of the affected arm post stroke improves motor function in participants with arm weakness following a stroke.	30/11/2025	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
Clinical usability evaluation of an ATFS for socket design	317901	An evaluation of clinical usability related safety of an Adaptive Templates Fitting System (ATFS) to support prosthetic socket design	The study focus will be the design of sockets for below knee amputation, as this has the highest prevalence and as such has been the focus of researchers for CAD/CAM software development.	28/11/2025	Open	Commercial Portfolio
PACMAN	333923	Indwelling Pleural Catheters: Co-Developing an Intervention to Support Self-Management	This study is to investigate the feasibility of patients and family/carers self managing their indwelling pleural catheters, alongside the views of community nurses.	31/08/2025	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
OPTICALS Randomised Control Trial	275949	OptiCALS: A Randomised Controlled Trial with parallel Process Evaluation and Health Economic analysis to evaluate a nutritional management intervention, OptiCALS, for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis	The purpose of this study is to test a support package (the 'OptiCALS' intervention) designed to improve nutritional management for people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease.	30/09/2025	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
A Register for New Anti-Epileptic Drugs in ID/PDD Populations	345110	A register for collecting and measuring outcomes of licensed Anti-Epileptic Drugs and Epilepsy treatments in patients with Epilepsy and Intellectual Disability and/or Pervasive Developmental Disorders	This Epilepsy Research Database is focussed on building an ongoing evidence base evaluating the outcomes of Anti-Epileptic Drugs and epilepsy treatments for people with Intellectual Disability (ID) and/or Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD such as Autism).	30/10/2029	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
EASE	1008638	Evaluating Antidepressants for emotionaliSm after strokE: A multi-centre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to establish the effect(s) of administration of Sertraline (50 mg once daily for six months) in people with a recent stroke and post-stroke emotionalism	To determine if administration of sertraline 50mg OD for 6 months in the first year after stroke reduces post stroke emotionalism symptoms in adults.	30/06/2026	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
SIGHT	335220	A randomised control multicentre trial investigating efficacy and predictive markers of Spatial Inattention Grasping Home-based Therapy for spatial neglect recovery post-stroke (the predictive-SIGHT trial)	Trial investigating efficacy and predictive markers of Spatial Inattention Grasping Home-based Therapy for spatial neglect recovery post-stroke	TBC	Project site in setup
ART-transition	334427	ADHD Remote Technology and ADHD transition: predicting and preventing negative outcomes (ART-transition)	This study will look at transition to adulthood for individuals with ADHD: what changes take place, what predicts them, and how can we prevent negative outcomes and support healthy lifestyles? We will remotely monitor 250 young people with ADHD over a two-year continuous assessment period.	02/03/2026	Project site in setup	Non-commercial portfolio
Integrating Behaviour Change Conversations into Physiotherapy	342767	Developing a Training Programme and Real Time Support for Physiotherapists to integrate Behaviour Change Conversations into their Clinical Practice.	To develop a training package to support physiotherapists to assess and identify patient's barriers and facilitators to engagement with self-management and home exercise adherence.	30/10/2025	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
Plant-protein dominant feed study	354515	Exploratory randomised, controlled trial to evaluate the impact of four nutritionally complete, plant-protein dominant, enteral tube feeds on long term outcomes in community-based adults	This study aims to determine whether a plant-protein dominant enteral tube feed is as effective as animal-protein dominant formulations in patients who are tube fed at home.	TBC	Project site in setup	Commercial portfolio
ReSTORe	342547	Remote STrOke Rehabilitation (ReSTORe): a UK-wide randomised controlled trial	The trial is testing the effectiveness of a remote rehabilitation programme on improving health-related quality of life for people with mild to moderate physical and/or mental health disability after stroke	TBC	Project site in setup	Non-commercial portfolio
Evaluation of Neurovirt Implementation	356727	An evaluation of the implementation of an immersive virtual reality system (NeuroVirt) for optimising upper limb function after stroke	A study to assess the use of immersive virtual reality system within an NHS setting.	TBC	Project site in setup	Non-commercial portfolio
BigTOE Trial	346977	Big Toe OstEoarthritis (BigTOE) Trial: Inserts	Arthritis of the big toe joint, where the big toe joins the rest of the foot, is very common. It causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints, which can often get worse when walking. Living with big toe joint arthritis can affect people's day to day activities and impact on whether they can work and enjoy other activities and hobbies. We do not know the best way of helping people living with painful big toe arthritis. Some types of shoe inserts may help reduce pain which might make it easier to walk and do daily activities. We are running a large research study (a clinical trial) to find out if shoe inserts can help people with big toe arthritis. We do not know if one type of shoe insert is better than another for people with this arthritis. We will test two different types of shoe inserts to find out if they reduce pain, help people walk and have a better quality of life.  Participants will be asked to wear some  inserts in their shoe for the affected foot. They will be asked to complete four more questionnaires over the next 12 months. These will ask about the pain in their toe and feet, their walking and daily activities, and if their health has changed over time. They will be asked how they are getting on with wearing their shoe inserts. The trial will run in NHS outpatient clinics in community and secondary care that treat people with arthritis of the big toe joint. The aim is to run the trial with different services and any clinician responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of people with arthritis of the big toe joint can recruit participants.	31/07/2026	Open	Non-commercial portfolio
TRUSTED (CONSENTOR)	323912	Combined One-off Neuroimmunological conditions Study and trial Eligibility Notification Tool and Observational Research consent form	Neuroimmunological conditions (NICs) - including multiple sclerosis (MS),neuromyelitis optica,anti-myelin oligodendrocyte (MOG) antibody syndromes and myasthenia gravis - affect millions of children and adults around the world. The most common of these in adults,MS,affects 125,000 people in the UK,making it one of the most frequent causes of disability in the young,with annual costs of £10,000-£35,000 per patient.1 While MS in children is much less common than in adults,other immune conditions affecting the neurological system (such as MOG antibody disease) are more common. Observational studies and clinical trials have uncovered key aspects of these conditions' natural history and responsiveness to disease-modifying therapies (DMTs),but much remains unknown,both about the conditions and their optimal treatment.  Large observational studies utilise national and international NIC registries. However,data in registries is only available from a small minority of those affected by NICs in the UK (limiting their generalisability) and have historically lacked safety data (preventing long-term benefit-risk analysis in the real-world) and pregnancy data. The primary barrier to registry participation is the time necessary for entering clinical data and consenting patients. Nonetheless,there is broad willingness from both clinicians and people with NICs to contribute data to registries,and to maximise their impact by contributing to multiple registries. Ongoing work seeks to automate data extraction from healthcare records,preventing duplicate data entry into condition portals. But significant time is still required to consent patients to different registries.  Only a minority of people with NICs become involved in clinical trials. Major barriers include limited awareness of eligibility and access to ongoing trials,again reflecting the time pressures clinicians face in clinic which preclude them having these discussions.  We aim to (i) increase the number of people with NICs contributing their clinical and paraclinical data to NIC registries; (ii) increase the number of NIC registries each person with an NIC contributes to; (iii) facilitate observational research through clinic sites outside of registries; (iv) improve access to clinical trials and studies for people with NICs; (v) expedite NIC trial recruitment; (vi) aid researchers in assessing the feasibility of future trials by indicating approximate numbers of people with NICs who are interested in particip	TBC	Project site in setup	Non-commercial portfolio
FISS	331214	A randomised controlled trial to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of the Action Falls rehabilitation programme compared to usual care alone to reduce falls in stroke survivors.	A randomised controlled trial to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of the Action Falls rehabilitation programme compared to usual care alone to reduce falls in stroke survivors.	TBC	Project site in setup	Non-commercial portfolio
Validation of the Anxiety Intensity Scale Circles (AISCs) and Yale-A	326826	Anxiety Intensity Scale Circles (AISCs) and the Yale-anxiety: exploring the validity of two anxiety screens and Natural Language Processing in stroke	Feeling anxious is common after stroke. It is important that clinicians are aware if someone is suffering from anxiety so that they can provide the best support.  Clinicians use questionnaires to understand if people are feeling anxious. However, problems with language, attention, or fatigue, after stroke can make it hard for some stroke survivors to complete. We therefore aim to develop new questionnaires that people with these problems can complete, so that their experiences are not overlooked. The questionnaires are the Anxiety Intensity Scale Circles (AISCs) and the Yale question for anxiety (Yale-a). They are designed to be more inclusive for people with the above problems than other measures by relying less on language, being briefer, and easier to answer. We aim to identify if these two measures are accurate. We will ask 142 stroke survivors on rehabilitation wards, at least two weeks after their stroke to take part. They will be asked to complete the AISCs and Yale-a alongside some extra mood and anxiety questionnaires. We will assess if the scores are similar (convergent validity) and compare completion rates. A mental health professional will then talk to the participants separately and conduct a clinical interview. If the results of the AISCs and Yale-a match the result of the clinical interview, we will know they are accurate (criterion validity). Finally, we will repeat the questionnaires on a third visit to see if the results stay similar over time.  We also want to see if Artificial Intelligence (AI) can detect features of anxiety and low mood in people's tone of voice and the words they choose. We will audio record two description tasks and train the AI using the clinical interview outcome data.	01/06/2026	Open	Non-commercial portfolio

RESIDE - Research Interest Database

What is RESIDE?

When you sign up to RESIDE it means you are interested in hearing about research projects that you or someone you know, might want to take part in. RESIDE is a secure database held at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust. It means that we can contact you when a research project that might interest you is available. By only letting you know about research projects that might be suitable for you limits how many times we contact you with research projects that might not be relevant to you.

How do I sign up? 

Click here to add your details and sign up to RESIDE. 

What can I expect when I sign up?

When you choose to sign up, a member of the research team will contact you by phone within about two weeks. During this call, a few more questions will be asked to help us understand a bit more about you. This means we can offer you research projects that are most suitable for you. After this, we will send you an email or letter to thank you and give you our contact details.

After the initial contact, what will happen?

Whenever there is a research project that might suit you, we will let you know about it by your preferred method - phone or email or post. It's then up to you if you want to go ahead and take part in the research.

What if there are no research projects suitable for me?

Sometimes, there won't be research projects that are suitable for you for some time. If this has been the case for around a year, we will contact you to check that you still want to stay on RESIDE. If we can't reach you by phone, we will try by email or letter. If we don't hear back from you, we will take your details off RESIDE.

How do I leave RESIDE?

You choose to sign up and you can choose to leave! Just contact us on the details we sent you and let us know you want to be removed from RESIDE. It might be that when we contact you, you choose to say that you would like to leave RESIDE, that's ok, just tell us that.

Thank you for your interest in research!

Be Part of Research

Last year more than 1.3 million people, of all ages, took part in vital health and social care research. It is through high quality, ethically-approved research, that we can develop better treatments, improve diagnosis, learn more about prevention of illness and provide better care for everyone.

Often studies look for people living with a particular condition. But others may be seeking people who care for someone with a long-term illness, or people who do not have a condition (sometimes called 'healthy volunteers'). Everyone can make a difference, whatever their circumstances.

Be Part of Research is an online service that helps members of the public understand what research is, what taking part might involve, as well as helping people find research studies and volunteer to take part.

The service is mobile friendly and has a search tool that allows you to search by illnesses or conditions that are of interest to you, or by location or postcode.

Once you've found a study, you can see all the details including who to contact so you can ask to take part. You can also download, save or print the full study details so you can talk to your doctor, nurse or healthcare professional.

What is research - Easy Read digital booklet

Getting involved in Research Newsletters 

Getting Involved in Research is a monthly newsletter packed with information about the many ways to get involved in research as a patient, research participant and member of the public. 

For more information on how you can get involved in Research please see links below to the NIHR Getting Involved in Research, produced by the team at NIHR East of England Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN). To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here

Getting involved in Research Newsletter - April 2025

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - January 2025

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - December 2024

Getting involved in Research Newsletter Special Edition - September 2024

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - August 2024

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - July 2024

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - May 2024

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter.- February 2024

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - January 2024

Getting Involved in Research Newsletter - December 2023

Getting-Involved-in-Research-Newsletter -  November 2023

Getting Involved in Research newsletter - October 2023

Participant Case Studies

Some of our participants have been kind enough to share their Research Experience Stories.  To read these, please click on the links below:

Case Study: "I'm searching for that 'magic bullet' of a cure": Norfolk Long COVID Patient is supporting research in the East of England

"People need to volunteer for studies to progress research" - East of England patient is the first recruit in chronic wound study

"Chris is really looking forward to seeing what results come from the trial!" - East of England care home resident takes part in vital NHS research

Student and Work Experience with the Research Team at Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust

The Research Team at NCH&C support the safe delivery of clinical research studies within the trust. The delivery team supports our clinicians to set up individual studies, and assist them to recruit service users, patients and staff onto the study as required. Our team is also responsible for ensuring all study related procedures, such as questionnaires, health assessments and medications are administered safely and in accordance with the study protocol, and that accurate study records are maintained.

As part of your work experience you will get the opportunity to help assist with the administration involved in setting up of studies, potentially being involved in promotional work, and helping mail out about studies. Please note that we are not involved in lab-based research, and this placement will be office/clinical based.

For more information and to gain an understanding of our team, please check our trust web site and the NIHR website: Homepage NIHR