NIHR East of England Research Design Service (3)

The RDS East of England (EoE) covers the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire (Cambs), Hertfordshire (Herts) and Bedfordshire (Beds). The population in the 2011 census was 5,847,000. RDS staff are based in 5 sites at the Universities of Essex in Colchester, East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, Beds near Luton and Herts at Hatfield and at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge (with links to the Primary Care Unit, Cambridge University). The region is large and diverse stretching from mainly rural areas along the coast to the boroughs of Outer London. Cambridge in particular but also Norwich have a thriving applied health research culture but this is far less established in other parts of the region. The size of teams at each site reflects this with two large teams at Cambridge and Norwich and three small teams at the Universities of Essex, Herts and Beds. Unified regional working and cross-site support is routine, eg.t he three smaller sites provide some support to Cambridge clients, which gives the system in-built flexibility to cope with fluctuating demand at different sites.
As part of our modus operandi, we are committed to collaboration with Universities, NIHR organisations, NHS Trusts, Clinical Trials Units (CTUs), local health and social care authorities and third sector organisations. Working with these key partners and with input from members of the public, the RDS will play a key role in supporting health and social care researchers to develop high quality research proposals with potential to improve patient care.