We would like to thank you all for your attendance and participation in the Strategic Leadership Summit: ‘Unleashing possibilities - health and care research for our under-served communities,developing our collective NIHR response’.

I'd like to say how wonderful it was to see so many of you in person sharing your thoughts and experiences including those of you from across the wider NIHR, public contributors and partner organisations. The energy in the room was amazing. There was a wealth of experience in evidence which is incredibly valuable in enabling us all to move this work forward together. Thank you for taking the time to travel and take part in such important conversations.

Dr William van’t Hoff is the Chief Executive Officer at the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Coordinating Centre. He took up this position in March 2020. In his role, he provides leadership to the Clinical Research Network across England. Working in partnership, the Network delivers thousands of research studies with approximately 1 million participants each year, in the NHS as well as in social care settings throughout the country.

His previous post was as a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist and Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.

William has worked in NIHR since 2006, holding a number of positions. He is committed to patient involvement, inclusion and delivering the best research to maximise patient benefit. As NIHR CRN Clinical Director for NHS Engagement, he led an innovative partnership, including the R&D community and patients, to integrate clinical research into the CQC’s assessments of hospitals.

Sir Michael Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London since 1985. He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (Bloomsbury: 2015), and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (Bloomsbury: 2004). Professor Marmot is the Advisor to the WHO Director-General, on social determinants of health, in the new WHO Division of Healthier Populations; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019-), and co-Director of the of the CUHK Institute of Health Equity. He is the recipient of the WHO Global Hero Award; the Harvard Lown Professorship (2014-2017); the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health (2015), and 19 honorary doctorates. Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for nearly 50 years.

Amber O’Malley is Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Clinical Research Network Yorkshire and Humber (CRN Y&H), joining the team in January 2020. Prior to her current role Amber worked at a national level for over 10 years in the NIHR Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre (CRNCC) contributing to the collective leadership and management of the CRNCC.

Before joining the CRNCC Amber established her own commercial consultancy which she ran for nearly 10 years, working with public, private, community and charity organisations. Outside of work Amber has a busy family life, enjoys reading and walking in the region’s countryside.

Dr Esther Mukuka is the Head of Equality Diversity and Inclusion for NIHR. She has overall responsibility for the NIHR’s inclusion strategy with accountability for embedding inclusion across the NIHR’s people framework and portfolio of activities.

EDI is Everyone's Responsibility: We are delighted to share with you a two-part podcast with the NIHR Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Dr Esther Mukuka and Dr Shamaila Anwar, Project Lead, Medical Directorate, NIHR Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre. This was recorded for November's instalment of NIHR Learn Insights to mark Diversity and Inclusion week (2 x 30 min audio).

Peter Beresford OBE is Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national disabled people’s and user led organisation and network. He is also a founder of Power-Us, the European co-learning network. He is a long term user of mental health services. He has a long involvement in the disabled people’s and mental health service users’/survivors movements and worked as an educator, researcher, activist and service user to increase people’s say and involvement in policies and services that affect them. He has published widely in this field, most recently jointly editing with Jasna Russo The Routledge International Handbook on Mad Studies.

@BeresfordPeter

Thank you for all the posters that have been created for the Summit. It is wonderful to see current best practices and innovations being implemented across our national network. The map to the right highlights the breadth of poster contributors (flags) and the workplaces of Summit delegates (stars).

The e-posters are now available to view on NIHR Learn via this direct link.

With 50 posters available you can see which posters are getting the most views, and you can help direct colleagues to key insights by ‘liking’ individual posters (via the heart icon).

A discussion thread can be created for any poster. It would be particularly useful to know the actions you take after reading about the innovations and best practices being showcased. It may also be the case that you are already doing something similar in your region/organisation. Moreover, the majority of poster contributors have provided email contact details and would welcome direct dialogue with you.

Accessing NIHR Learn: All of our courses, including Good Clinical Practice, are accessed via our learning platform, NIHR Learn, and you will need to create an account (if you do not have one). We recommend you create your account with your NIHR/NHS/University email address. This is the quickest way to get an account which you will be able to access from anywhere once it is set up.