Leeds Trust region acknowledged as national leader in AHP research

A recent Medical Research Council publication has identified that Leeds Trust region is leading the way in high quality research funding for allied health professionals (AHP).

The report demonstrates that Leeds has secured the third highest amount of personal award funding, behind all of London combined and Manchester. This has followed several other recent successes for AHPs at Leeds including:

• NIHR Integrated Academic Partnership funding of Clinical Lecturer Fellowships to Dr Christine Comer and David Keane and Doctoral Fellows to Claire Mills and David Bird. We currently host the equal highest number of AHP Fellows - Drs Heidi Siddle, Richard Wilkins, Lorraine Green, John Biglands and Benjamin Drew

• With the recent appointment of Professor Anne-Maree Keenan, Leeds has the highest number of National Institute for Health's Senior Investigators (SI's) who are AHPs, with Anne-Maree joining current SI's Professors Anne Forster and Anthony Redmond.

• Working with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), we have extended the current Memorandum of Understanding to honour terms and conditions for clinical academics between the two organisations to support clinical academic careers for nurses, midwives and AHPs - the first of its kind in the UK.

Finally, working closely with SoH's Dr Heather Isle-Smith and colleagues in LTHT we have developed a strategy to support AHP development and extend this success into nurses and midwives across our partnership.