Background and Role
The Health and Social Care Research and Development (HSC R&D) Division is part of the Public Health Agency. Established in 2009, it is responsible for the administration and coordination of the HSC R&D budget on behalf of Department of Health, Northern Ireland (DoH NI). Its work is based on the principle that the best health and social care must be underpinned by knowledge, based on well conducted research, which can then be applied in the delivery of care.
(Between 1998 and 2009, prior to the Review of Public Administration, this function was carried out by the R&D Office, as part of the Central Services Agency).
The HSC R&D Division supports researchers based in Northern Ireland as well as those in Health and Social Care Trusts or other bodies who use the outputs from research findings.
While the effectiveness of research performance and application depends ultimately on the skill and ability of individual researchers and users of research, the HSC R&D Division ensures that researchers can work within an environment that supports, encourages and facilitates them.
For example HSC R&D Division:
- funds essential infrastructure for research such as information databanks, tissue banks, clinical research facilities - clinical trials units and research networks
- builds research capacity in Northern Ireland through research training opportunities
- enables research governance processes to be as efficient as possible
- creates opportunities for researchers to compete for research funding on a wider UK or international basis
- supports innovation as a means of transferring HSC R&D findings into practice
- ensures personal and public involvement (PPI) in HSC R&D
HSC R&D Division has a local focus but acknowledges that health and social care research is a global endeavour, and so, forms effective partnerships and close working relationships with our counterparts in the other UK administrations and in Ireland, the European Union and the United States of America.
