NHRP celebrates Red4Research Day 2026
Friday June 19, 2026
Today marks Red4Research Day 2026, a national moment to recognise, celebrate and thank everyone involved in research – from researchers and clinicians to patients, carers and public contributors who make research possible.
Research and collaboration are at the heart of Newcastle Health Research Partnership (NHRP). As a regional partnership, we are committed to bringing organisations together to identify where we can add the greatest value and strengthen collective research efforts across the North East. By working collaboratively, NHRP aims to support research that is impactful, inclusive and rooted in regional need.
Celebrating the 2025 NHRP Research Fund
This Red4Research Day, we’re showcasing how this collaborative approach is making a tangible difference by highlighting projects supported through the 2025 NHRP Research Fund. Launched in 2025, the fund provided seed-corn investment for innovative pilot projects and engagement activities involving two or more NHRP partner organisations.
New NHRP Research Challenge launching soon
Alongside celebrating current projects, NHRP is also looking ahead, with the new NHRP Research Challenge due to launch soon. This year’s fund will support small-scale, high potential projects involving collaboration between at least two NHRP partners, and aligning with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England’s three key shifts. Further details, including application guidance and timelines will be shared on the webpage soon.
Professor John Isaacs, Chair of NHRP Research Oversight Committee, said:
“Red4Research Day is an important opportunity to recognise the collective effort that underpins high‑quality research across our region. The 2025 NHRP Research Fund demonstrates what can be achieved when organisations come together with a shared purpose, enabling early‑stage, collaborative projects that are responsive to local need and have real potential to improve health and care. We are proud to support this work and look forward to building on this momentum through the next phase of our funding, via the upcoming 2026 NHRP Research Challenge.”
‘Vision in autism: a lived experience approach’
Dr Rachel Queen, NUAcT Fellow: Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, led this project with collaborators from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Northumbria University, and Newcastle University.
The project takes a lived‑experience approach to understanding vision in autism, placing autistic contributors at the centre of the research process.
Dr Queen said: “Support from NHRP was essential in enabling meaningful and equitable involvement throughout this project. NHRP provided dedicated funding that ensured our partner charities and autistic contributors were fairly compensated for their time, expertise, and lived experience.”
‘LUMEN: Helping families share their story before dementia assessment’
Dr Judith Harrison, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer: Old Age Psychiatry, led this project with collaborators from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle University and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
LUMEN focuses on supporting families to share meaningful personal narratives ahead of dementia assessments, helping clinicians gain a richer understanding of a person’s life and experiences.
Dr Harrison said: “NHRP funding made a focused but important contribution. The award supported around 12 to 13 days of specialist computer science and software engineering time from Newcastle University. This was not for the whole project, but for a specific piece of work: improving the LUMEN prototype during the clinical feasibility phase.
‘Capturing developmental histories with AI: a parent-facing conversational tool for neurodevelopmental assessment’
Dr Rugile Rozane, CAMHS ST4 Doctor at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, led this project with collaborators from Newcastle University.
This project explored how artificial intelligence could support parents to share developmental histories as part of neurodevelopmental assessment pathways, with a focus on improving experience and efficiency.
Dr Rozane said: “Funding from the NHRP Research Fund supported the early technical development required to design and build the initial prototype of the AI-supported developmental history tool. This funding enabled interdisciplinary collaboration between clinicians and computer scientists to explore how artificial intelligence methods could be applied to developmental history taking within neurodevelopmental assessment pathways.”
‘Health inequalities amongst homebound older people: an umbrella review’
Professor John Unsworth, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for the School of Healthcare and Nursing Sciences at Northumbria University, led this project with collaborators from Northumbria University and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The umbrella review examined existing evidence on health inequalities experienced by homebound older people, an often under‑represented population in research.
Prof Unsworth said: “NHRP provided funding for the review, contributing to a research assistant working on a sessional basis and associated costs related to online review platform access. NHRP also helped the team navigate governance requirements in their partner organisations.
‘Exploring patient experiences of biosimilar medicine switches in the North East and North Cumbria’
Katie Joyce, Medicines Value Programme Lead at North East and North Cumbria NHS, led this project with collaborators from Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University.
The study explored patient experiences of switching to biosimilar medicines, providing valuable insight to inform future commissioning and engagement approaches.
Ms Joyce said: “NHRP provided funding for the study, supporting the logistics and reimbursements associated with hosting focus groups.”
‘Collaborative workshops to accelerate the use of council data in research’
Kate Sheffer, Data Lead for Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Newcastle, led this project with collaborators from Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University.
The project focused on bringing together local authority and academic partners through a series of collaborative workshops to explore how council‑held data can be more effectively and responsibly used in research. By creating space for shared learning and discussion, the workshops aimed to strengthen relationships, identify opportunities and address barriers to using local data to better understand and tackle health inequalities.
Ms Sheffer said: The NHRP Research Fund enabled this work to take place by providing the resources to design and deliver the workshop.”
