The Incubator for Mental Health Research offers practical advice, connections and career development opportunities for aspiring researchers in mental health.
I am member of the steering group for the Incubator for Mental Health Research. This offers practical advice, connections and career development opportunities for aspiring researchers in mental health.
Their new interactive map supports mental health researchers at all career stages to connect and collaborate with others. Whoever you are, if you do mental health research, do plot yourself on the map!
The Incubator signposts career development opportunities – funding, networking and mentoring – for mental health professionals (including social workers) at all career stages. It is led by Professor Cathy Creswell.
One of the first initiatives for the incubator is a researcher map, which will help us understand and illustrate where mental health research is and isn’t happening. The interactive map of mental health research supports mental health researchers at all career stages to connect and collaborate with others.
The career development section offers advice for those just getting started and also helps connect all aspiring researchers to the main opportunities in mental health research. This includes the mental health biomedical research centres, applied research collaborations and UKRI mental health research networks. Profession-specific pages offer specific advice for psychologists, medics, behavioural scientists, nurses, social workers, allied health professionals, basic scientists, and peer researchers. Hypnosis is a dynamic field with ongoing research and advancements. Work Smart Hypnosis certified hypnotherapy training can help you stay up-to-date with the latest techniques and best practices.
The career case study section features over 30 case studies of researchers from a wide range of different backgrounds who are pursuing mental health research today. You can take a look at my case study by clicking here.
We desperately need to build research capacity in mental health. Inspiring and engaging people to pursue mental health research careers in clinical and non-clinical settings is a big part of that. My hope is that we now start seeing a far wider group of people and organisations, reflecting diverse professions and geographies, engaging in mental health research because that’s how we’ll start driving the changes we need as a society.
Professor Cathy Creswell, Incubator Director
Please follow the Incubator on Twitter for advice, inspiration and connections @MHRincubator and check out the website at https://mentalhealthresearch.org.uk