Opportunities to engage with NortHFutures

Opportunities to engage with NortHFutures

Jul 23, 2024 Emily Barker News, Research Opportunities, Digital & Data Skills

Moving into summer, we have several exciting opportunities for people to engage with the NortHFutures programme. Read more to see how you can get involved with NortHFutures and make a difference in Digital Health in the North East and North Cumbria. 


Digital Skills Survey 

We need your help to map healthcare skills ‘needs’ and ‘offers’ across the North East and North Cumbria. The Digital Skills Survey aims to map the healthcare skills ecosystem in the region. 

We’re especially keen to hear from people working in or around healthcare in any capacity across the region. Your views will provide invaluable insight and evidence to shape our planning around the facilitation and resourcing of training and skills sharing activities. 

Please share with relevant organisations and colleagues.  


Unlock Funding for Digital Health  

We have £800k to allocate to research projects in the field of Digital Health, focusing on addressing regional unmet health and care needs, health inequalities, and digital exclusion.  

To apply for our funding, you need to attend one of our upcoming workshops.

Widening participation in research is at the heart of NortHFutures, we are especially interested in fostering collaborations across academic and VCSE partners. 

Research Themes 

Our funding supports research across four key themes, each grounded in the health and care needs of our region: 

Developing Digital Surgical Pathways  

  • 3 & 4 September 2024  
  • The Catalyst, Newcastle 

Living and Ageing Well with Multiple Long-term Conditions  

  • 12 & 13 September 2024
  • Sjøvoll Centre, Durham 

Promoting Health and Nutrition for Children and Young People  

  • 17 & 18 September 2024 
  • Carlisle Youth Zone, Carlisle 

Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing  

  • 2 & 3 October 2024 
  • Recovery College Collective, Newcastle 

These themes broadly aim to support individuals in living well and thriving at every stage of life. 

How to take part  

We want to ensure that everyone who attends can benefit from taking part and have a chance of accessing the funding, so our workshops will have limited spaces. We’re offering two dates for each theme. 

You can select multiple workshops and dates. We will be considering all applications and will notify you of the outcome on week beginning 12th August. 

If you are representing a VCSE organisation, you may be able to benefit from financial support to attend. Please get in touch with the NortHFutures Programme Manager, Jen Wood, to find out more: jennifer.wood@ncl.ac.uk  

No Expertise Required  

You don’t need to be an expert in the workshop’s theme to participate. Your involvement will include contributing to discussions on potential research and engagement opportunities related to the topic. You’ll collaborate with other participants to develop a proposal for funding from the NortHFutures Hub.  

The workshops will also provide expert guidance and mentoring from NortHFutures partners, ensuring a supportive environment for all participants. 

Benefits of Taking Part 

  • Collaborative Research Funding: Work in teams to create a proposal for funding from NortHFutures. 
  • Tackle Real-World Problems: Address pressing issues and develop solutions with tangible, real-world outcomes. 
  • Expand Your Network: Make valuable connections for potential research collaborations.  
  • Enhance Proposal Quality: Benefit from peer-review to refine and improve your proposal. 
  • Boost Your Research Skills: Enhance your abilities in project development, collaboration, and applying for funding. 

Support and Mentoring 

After the workshop, the teams will have time to develop their ideas into a proposal that will be submitted to the NortHFutures team. 

We know that developing bids and running research projects can be complicated, so project team will be assigned a NortHFutures mentor to guide them through the pre and post award stages and offer advice in: 

  • Costing your proposal 
  • Ethical approval 
  • Research impact 
  • Bid and report writing 
  • Research evaluation 

Key Dates 

  • Expression of Interest (via form) closes: 9th August 2024 (23:59) 
  • Funding Proposal submission: 15th November 2024 
  • Notification of funding proposal outcome: 16th December 2024 
  • Research Projects commence by: 1st February 2025 
  • Mid-point project reporting: 1st September 2025 
  • Projects end by: 30th April 2026 

Read more about the workshops here.

Read the FAQ here.

Read the Project Call Guidance here.