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HDRC Cornwall News and Updates
Our community small grants pilot scheme is open for applications.
Learn more about our community small grants
Learning Opportunities
NIHR School for Social Care Research: Career development awards
The latest round of Career Development Awards from the NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR) are live. Applications are invited from people committed to advancing their careers in social care research.
Key information:
Applicants can apply for £20,000 to £75,000. This is to fund salary buy-out, training and development costs, and other direct costs associated with carrying out this award over 1 to 2 years.
Applicants could include:
- social care practitioners,
- researchers
- individuals new to social care research or research in general.
Read the full guidance and register to one of the support webinars via the SSCR funding webpage. The NIHR expect applicants to demonstrate fit with the SSCR programme. They also ask for evidence of engaging with their thematic priorities.
Contact sscr-training@york.ac.uk with any questions. The Research Support Service (RSS) Specialist Centre for Social Care also offers confidential guidance.
The deadline for applications is 5pm Thursday 25 September 2025. Full guidance, FAQs and details on how to apply are on the SSCR website.
If you are interested, have questions, or want support with an application, please email hdrc@cornwall.gov.uk
Current events
Discussion Series
Wondering how you could apply research in your work?
Then join our Discussion Series. A chance to hear about how research can be used in different settings, and to chat with others to share knowledge, gain ideas and expand your network.
Read our event poster to learn more
Recent events
Surfacing the Meaning of Research
We aim to provide a strong foundation from which to build and grow the HDRC collaboratively.
“Surfacing the Meaning of Research” was an event aimed at everyone who is interested in being part of, or benefiting from, engaging with the HDRC.
The session aimed to:
- surface our diverse understandings of research, and
- its importance for creating a shared appreciation of what research means.
Whilst we can all get on board with fixing health determinants including:
- food
- housing
- debt
- employment, etc
we often have different views of how this should be done.
That’s where research comes in:
- how do we plan
- conduct, and
- use research
in a way that helps us to understand health determinants, their impacts and how to improve them?
This session was for everyone interested in the HDRC, not just those who regularly generate or use research.
The understanding surfaced during the session will also lead into our HDRC work examining skills and priorities for the HDRC.
Introducing realist evaluation and synthesis
Introduction to realist evaluation and synthesis, with Dr Becky Hardwick, Senior Research Fellow, NIHR South West Peninsula Applied Research Collaborative, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth
- Have you ever noticed that even evidence-based public health initiatives only work sometimes, in some places, but not in others and not for everyone?
- Have you ever come up with your own ideas as to why it does or doesn’t work here, with these people, in these settings?
- Are you interested in learning about an approach to evaluation which goes beyond straightforward measures of effectiveness, to explaining how that effectiveness might be caused?
From did it work, to why did it work, how, for whom and in what circumstances?
This introductory workshop was held on Monday 2nd June 2025.
Aim of the workshop
The aim of the workshops was to develop capacity for evaluation practice and research use.
Over 1 hour, participants learnt about ‘realist evaluation’ and how to use it in practice.