NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre

NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub Lunchtime Seminar: Sample sizes for clinical trials - an overview
2025-01-08 13:00 - 13:30 (Europe/London) | Online
This is the fifth in a series of eight lunchtime seminars organised by the NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub. Each seminar is 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, and will be held via Microsoft Teams. These seminars are open to all in the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Sample sizes for clinical trials – an overview
Nicholas Peckham, OCTRU Senior Statistician
Wednesday 8th January 2025, 1:00-1:30pm
Further details coming soon.
No registration is required.
Click here to join the session.

An introduction to public involvement in research
2025-01-22 11:00 - 12:30, 2025-03-04 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-05-15 13:00 - 14:30
Are you a researcher who wants to know more about Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)?

Are you a researcher who is looking for reliable online resources to help get you started with PPI?

Are you a PPI lead or responsible for PPI in your team or theme looking for support and information?

If so, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre together with Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences are pleased to invite you to a training session on how to involve patients and the public in your research work.

Join us online via Teams. You can sign up here:

https://forms.microsoft.com/r/dpew0R4gE9

For further information please email:

Angeli.Vaid@ouh.nhs.uk or Polly.Kerr@phc.ox.ac.uk

NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub Lunchtime Seminar: Trial designs for late phase trials
2025-02-05 13:00 - 13:30 | Online
This is the sixth in a series of eight lunchtime seminars organised by the NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub. Each seminar is 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, and will be held via Microsoft Teams. These seminars are open to all in the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Trial designs for late phase trials
Dr Elizabeth Conroy, OCTRU Lead Statistician
Wednesday 5th February 2025, 1:00-1:30pm
Further details coming soon.
No registration is required.
Click here to join the session.

The Road Less Travelled: women’s journeys into academic leadership
2025-02-11 12:00 - 13:30 | Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford Roosevelt Drive , Headington Oxford , OX3 7FY
ASCEND, a new network for women and gender non-conforming researchers across the University of Oxford’s Medical Sciences Division and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, is launching!

The network will aim to support women and gender non-conforming researchers and staff in mid and senior level positions to develop as research leaders and gain support in furthering their careers.

The network’s inaugural event, The Road Less Travelled: women’s journeys into academic leadership, will take place on Tuesday 11th February 12:00-13:00, with lunch to be provided from 13:00-13:30. Join us at the Kennedy Lecture Theatre as Professors Kokila Lakhoo, Eva Morris and Laura Coates discuss their careers as women academics, with a Q&A to follow. Please note, if you are registering to attend the lunch, you must register by Monday 3rd February.

This event is open to researchers and staff across the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals who have an interest in developing into senior/leadership roles in research and academia.

Sign up here

Ethnicity Inclusion in Research Training
2025-02-25 11:00 - 12:30 | Online
Do you want to make your research more inclusive? These online training sessions are collaborations between Cambridge, Oxford and Oxford Health BRCs and provide an opportunity to enhance your approach to ethnicity inclusion in health research.

Who is this for?

Researchers at Oxford, Oxford Health, and Cambridge Biomedical Research Centres.

What to expect

Training for researchers on how to include ethnic diversity in clinical trials using the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, with Professor Shaun Treweek.

A researcher will share their experiences with inclusive research.

An informative session on practical tools for ethnicity inclusion in health research.

There will be a live question-and-answer session with the key speakers.

Ready to enrol? Limited spaces are available so reserve your spot now!Link to register: https://forms.office.com/e/VwcXTzKPrR

When will I get my calendar invite and meeting link?

All attendees will receive a calendar invite with an online Teams meeting link soon after they register.

Who is my Oxford BRC contact for further information or queries?

Rachel Taylor (Public and Community Involvement, Engagement and Participation Lead)

Mili Kalia(Oxford BRC, Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion Manager)

NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub Lunchtime Seminar: Survival analysis techniques in clinical trials - from traditional methods to multi-state Markov modelling approaches
2025-03-05 13:00 | Online
This is the seventh in a series of eight lunchtime seminars organised by the NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub. Each seminar is 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, and will be held via Microsoft Teams. These seminars are open to all in the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Survival analysis techniques in clinical trials – from traditional methods to multi-state Markov modelling approaches
Dr Clement Twumasi, NDM Medical Statistician
Wednesday 5th March 2025, 1:00-1:30pm
This talk explores the evolution of survival analysis techniques in clinical trials, highlighting their crucial role in medical research. We will start with traditional methods like Kaplan-Meier estimates and Cox proportional hazards models, foundational tools for analysing time-to-event data. The discussion will then advance to contemporary approaches, focusing on time-homogeneous and inhomogeneous multi-state Markov models. These models offer a nuanced view of patient trajectories through different health states, providing deeper insights into disease progression and treatment efficacy. Attendees will gain a good understanding of both conventional and cutting-edge techniques for time-to-event analysis, enhancing their ability to design and interpret them in clinical trials
No registration is required.
Click here to join the session.

EDI Lunch and Learn: Cultural Intelligence
2025-03-18 12:00 - 13:00
Cultural intelligence (CQ) is the capability to function and relate effectively in culturally diverse environments. By improving your CQ, you not only increase your cultural awareness and sensitivity, but also your ability to work with people from different backgrounds.

In this lunchtime session, Tommy Snipe, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Manager, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and certified cultural intelligence facilitator, will provide an overview of what CQ is and how it helps to create an inclusive workplace culture.

If you’d like to attend, please register by Friday 14 March using the button below.

Register

This is the first Oxford BRC EDI Lunch and Learn, an informal one-hour session where you can take away top tips from EDI experts on strengthening EDI initiatives and capabilities in your teams, processes and research pathways.

NIHR Oxford BRC 2025 writing retreat (25, 26 & 27 March 2025)
2025-03-25 - 2025-03-27 | Said Business School, University of Oxford, Park End St,, Oxford, OX1 1HP
This three-day writing retreat is open to all nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, psychologists, pharmacists and healthcare scientists at any career stage, working at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust or the University of Oxford. It offers time and space to focus on writing without interruption. It will also help you to become more aware of your writing processes and use this to help you write more productively.
The retreat will take place on 25, 26 and 27 March 2025 at Saïd Business School, Egrove Park, Oxford, OX1 5NY.
Attendees are expected to attend all 3 days.
The core days will run from 10am-4pm, however you can arrive anytime from 8.30am to start writing and stay until 6pm.
Writing projects that could be worked on during the retreat include:

Doctoral thesis chapter(s)
Masters dissertation chapter(s)
Paper for a peer-reviewed journal from a completed piece of research, service evaluation, quality improvement, audit, or literature review
Development of a research proposal for future application
Analysing data that will form part of a report or publication

We will provide a mentor to guide you with your writing. The workshop will be structured to include regular review and feedback slots. To get the most out of the event it is important that you come ready to write from the very start of day one. Therefore, you will need to send your mentor up to 3 SMART goals and the outcomes you aim to achieve by the end of the writing retreat. You also need to send them an outline of what you plan to write.
Attendees are expected to commit to submitting the output from the workshop within 3-6 months of the writing retreat.
If you have attended this retreat previously then you are welcome to apply, however priority will be given to those who have not attended before.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided. There is plenty of parking, the bus number 35 stops outside and it is easily cyclable from Oxford.
The deadline for applications has been extended to 12pm on Monday 3 February 2025. There are 20 places available.
The writing retreat is sponsored by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).
If you have any questions please contact Clair Merriman (clair.merriman@ouh.nhs.uk).
Apply through Microsoft forms: https://forms.office.com/e/hGADYCiA4B
Applications will be assessed on:

Whether the writing project goal is appropriate for the 3-day retreat
Whether the stated objectives are achievable in the 3 days
Whether the applicant can commit to all 3 days
Whether the line manager has given approval to attend

FREE Public Talk: Predicting heart attacks years before they happen
2025-04-08 18:00 - 19:15 | Rewley House, Department for Continuing Education, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA
Imagine if you could find out if you were likely to have a heart attack in ten years’ time.

Some 2.3 million people in the UK are living with coronary heart disease. Computed tomography (CT) heart scans are the recommended test for people with cardiac chest pain. These images assess narrowing and obstruction in the heart and blood vessels. But they fail to pick up half of the heart attacks that occur.

Research has shown that changes in the fatty tissue and increased inflammation around coronary vessels is linked to a higher risk of fatal heart attacks.

In this talk, Clinical Research Fellow Kenneth Chan will explain how a new device developed in Oxford combines the CT scan with artificial intelligence to detect these biological processes –invisible to the human eye – that precede the narrowing of the arteries and cause heart attacks.

This CaRi-Heart device, now successfully trialled in NHS hospitals, promises to be a game-changer in our efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease.

FREE entry, no booking required. Refreshments at 5.40 for a 6pm start.

NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub Lunchtime Seminar: Multilevel modelling in clinical trials
2025-04-09 13:00 - 13:30 | Online
This is the final lunchtime seminar in a series of eight, organised by the NIHR Oxford BRC Statistics Hub. Each seminar is 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, and will be held via Microsoft Teams. These seminars are open to all in the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Multilevel modelling in clinical trials
Dr Daphne Kounali, OCTRU Lead Statistician
Wednesday 9th April 2025, 1:00-1:30pm
A multilevel model is a statistical tool used to analyze data with a complex dependence structure, such as when patients are nested within hospitals or when there are multiple levels of treatment providers and geographic locations. In this seminar, I will define the different types of structures in clinical trials and discuss various applications of multilevel models, including incorporating repeated measurements, accounting for drop-out, and addressing measurement error. I will demonstrate how realistic assumptions and focusing on structure can help understand contextual effects and heterogeneity in outcomes, providing more precise estimates of treatment effects and predictions.
No registration is required.
Click here to join the session.

Lunch and Learn: How can the Equality Act inform health and care research?
2025-05-19 12:00 - 13:00
The Equality Act 2010 plays a vital role in shaping fair and inclusive healthcare research — yet its relevance is not always widely understood.

In this online session, Mili Kalia, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Oxford BRC, and Angeli Vaid, Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Training and Inclusion Manager, Oxford BRC, will explore the key principles of the Act and discuss how they apply to research environments and practices.

Whether you’re new to the topic or looking to deepen your understanding, this is a great opportunity to learn how equality legislation can (and should) inform the way we design, conduct and evaluate healthcare research. Join us online via Microsoft Teams.

Register here

This is the second Oxford BRC EDI Lunch and Learn, an informal one-hour session where you can take away top tips from EDI experts on strengthening EDI initiatives and capabilities in your teams, processes and research pathways.

Ethnicity Inclusion in Research Training
2025-06-04 12:30 - 14:00 | Online
Do you want to make your research more inclusive? These online training sessions are collaborations between Cambridge, Oxford and Oxford Health BRCs and provide an opportunity to enhance your approach to ethnicity inclusion in health research.

Who is this for?

Researchers at Oxford, Oxford Health, and Cambridge Biomedical Research Centres.

What to expect

Training for researchers on how to include ethnic diversity in clinical trials using the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, with Professor Shaun Treweek.

A researcher will share their experiences with inclusive research.

An informative session on practical tools for ethnicity inclusion in health research.

There will be a live question-and-answer session with the key speakers.

Ready to enrol? Limited spaces are available so reserve your spot now!

Link to register: https://forms.office.com/e/VwcXTzKPrR

When will I get my calendar invite and meeting link?

All attendees will receive a calendar invite with an online Teams meeting link soon after they register.

Who is my Oxford BRC contact for further information or queries?

Rachel Taylor (Public and Community Involvement, Engagement and Participation Lead)

Mili Kalia(Oxford BRC, Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion Manager)

Ensuring public contributors' voices are heard
2025-06-17 12:30 - 14:00
Are you a researcher, PPIE lead, or coordinator supporting public involvement in research? This practical online ‘train the trainer’ session is designed to equip you with the tools, tips, and ready-to-use materials to help public contributors speak up with confidence in meetings.

Originally co-produced with experienced public contributors for two patient groups in the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, this training has received excellent feedback — and now we’re sharing it more widely so you can adapt and deliver it in your own setting.

What you’ll gain:

Practical strategies to support meaningful participation

Insights into how the training was developed with public partners

A flexible, editable slide deck to reuse or tailor as needed

Meet the speakers:

Angeli Vaid, Training and Inclusion Manager in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Jenny Gould, Member of Oxford Trauma PPI Group and Patient and Public Advisory Group.

Paul Deusen, Member of Patient and Public Advisory Group.

Come along to learn useful tips and take away resources you can use in your own work!

Register here

Involving Patients and the Public in Research
2025-09-18 12:30 - 14:00, 2025-12-09 12:30 - 14:00, 2026-03-18 12:30 - 14:00
Are you a researcher who wants to know more about Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)?

Are you a researcher who is looking for reliable online resources to help get you started with PPI?

Are you a PPI lead or responsible for PPI in your team or theme looking for support and information?

If so, the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre together with the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences are pleased to invite you to a training session on how to involve patients and the public in your research work.

Join us online via Teams.

For further information please contact:

Angeli.Vaid@ouh.nhs.uk or Polly.Kerr@phc.ox.ac.uk

Lunch and Learn: Equality Impact Assessment and Inclusive Research Design
2025-09-23 12:00 - 13:00
With Stephanie Perrin, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Agile InitiativeAn Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a way to identify the possible impacts of a research project or decision. Researchers can use this tool to understand the effects of their work on trial participants or members of the research team, based on their protected characteristics, and mitigate potential negative impacts and promote positive ones.

Completing an EIA helps ensure that research processes are fair and do not present barriers to participation. It is a great way for researchers to embed equality, diversity and inclusion through all stages of their projects, be it research design, engagement or participant selection.

In this talk, Stephanie will explain why EIAs are important, how to use them and how you can apply them to your research to demonstrate how you have considered inclusion. There will be an opportunity to ask questions.

REGISTER HERE

Stephanie Perrin joined the Oxford Martin School in January 2023 as the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Officer for the Agile Initiative. She plays a key role in shaping and delivering plans to strengthen EDI across Agile’s research, capacity development, outreach and communications. This is the latest Oxford BRC EDI Lunch and Learn, informal one-hour sessions where you can take away top tips from EDI experts on strengthening EDI initiatives and capabilities in your teams, processes and research pathways.

NIHR Oxford BRC three-day writing retreat for NMAHPPS (30 Sep, 2 Oct, 3 Oct 2025)
2025-09-30 10:00 - 2025-10-02 16:00 | Said Business School, Egrove Park, Oxford, OX1 5NY
This three-day writing retreat is open to all nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, psychologists, pharmacists and healthcare scientists at any career stage, working at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust or the University of Oxford.

It offers time and space to focus on writing without interruption. It will also help you to become more aware of your writing processes and use this to help you write more productively.

The retreat will take place from Tuesday 30 September to Thursday 2 October 2025 at the Saïd Business School, Egrove Park, Oxford, OX1 5NY.

Attendees are expected to attend all 3 days.

The core days will run from 10am-4pm, however you can arrive anytime from 8.30am to start writing and stay until 5.30pm.

Writing projects that could be worked on during the retreat include:

Doctoral thesis chapter(s)

Master’s dissertation chapter(s)

Paper for a peer-reviewed journal from a completed piece of research, service evaluation, quality improvement, audit, or literature review

Development of a research proposal for future application

Analysing data that will form part of a report or publication

We will provide a mentor to guide you with your writing. The workshop will be structured to include regular review and feedback slots. To get the most out of the event it is important that you come ready to write from the very start of day one. Therefore, you will need to send your mentor an outline of what you plan to write, up to 3 SMART goals and the outcomes you aim to achieve by the end of the writing retreat.

Attendees are expected to commit to submitting the output from the workshop within three to six months of the writing retreat.

If you have attended this retreat previously, you are welcome to apply. However priority will be given to those who have not attended before.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided. There is plenty of parking at Egrove Park and bus number 35 stops outside. Egrove Park is easily cyclable from Oxford.

The deadline for application has been extended to 12pm on Wednesday 3 September 2025.

Apply through Microsoft Forms

The writing retreat is sponsored by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

If you have any questions, please contact Dr Clair Merriman at clair.merriman@ouh.nhs.uk.

Applications will be assessed on:

Whether the line manager has given approval to attend

Whether the writing project goal is appropriate for the three-day retreat

Whether the stated objectives are achievable in the three days

Whether the applicant can commit to all three days

FREE Public Talk - Why are more younger people having strokes?
2025-11-04 18:00 - 19:15 | Rewley House, Department for Continuing Education, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability. It is often thought of as something that happens only at older ages. But more and more, we see young adults in their 20s, 30s, 40s suffering from stroke.

Why is this happening? Are strokes really becoming more common at younger ages, or are we just getting better at detecting them? More importantly, what can we do to reduce the risk and improve prevention?

In this talk, Linxin Li, a Clinical Research Fellow in the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, will explore the recent increase in strokes at younger ages, discuss what might be driving it and assess if there is any easy solution in primary care.

FREE entry, no booking required.

Refreshments from 5.40pm, for a 6pm start.

Webinar series - Inclusivity Training Part 1/3: Reaching Beyond the Usual. Inclusive approaches to research with a focus on intersectionality
2025-11-17 10:00 - 11:30
with Cherish Boxall.

This is one of a three-part series of online inclusivity training sessions for health and care researchers organised by six NIHR Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health, with the aim of helping you embed inclusion in your research.

This webinar is an interactive online event and has been created to help researchers optimise research accessibility and consider a variety of approaches that take into account the interconnected nature of individuals and groups to enhance equity.

During this first session we will discuss practical tools to help researchers plan and deliver inclusive health research including asking, how well do you really know your target population?

Limited spaces available.

For any questions about this session, please contact: Andreia Costa, Project Manager, NIHR Oxford Health BRC training.ohbrc@psych.ox.ac.uk

About the speakers:

Cherish Boxall, Founder & Director of Engage Intelligently, draws on behavioural science and 14 years of experience setting up and delivering clinical trials and securing competitive research funding, including two NIHR fellowships. She specialises in turning evidence on inclusion and participant behaviour into practical strategies that work. Expect real-world examples, actionable tools, and time throughout the session for your questions.

Lizzie Carline, Project Manager, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Oxford Health BRC

Research Inclusivity Training Webinar Series:

These sessions are for research staff affiliated with the following Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health.

2nd Webinar: 10.30am on 24th November: Ethnicity Inclusion Training – More details and Register here

3rd Webinar: 10am on 8th December: Socio-disadvantage Inclusion Training – More details, Register here

To open full poster, click here: Inclusivity Training for Health and Care Researchers, Nov-Dec 2025.

Privacy Notice:

We adhere to the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018- https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/. Any data collected is used to improve services. Privacy Statement NIHR – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-privacy-policy

Webinar - Ethnicity Inclusion for health and care researchers
2025-11-24 10:30 - 12:30
with Prof. Shaun Treweek

This is the second in a three-part series of online inclusivity training sessions for health and care researchers organised by six NIHR Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health, with the aim of helping you to help embed inclusion in your research.

An informative and interactive session on the practical tools needed for ethnicity inclusion in health research. Covering the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, useful resources and researcher case study.

For any questions about this session, please contact: Mili Kalia, EDI Manager, NIHR Oxford BRC: Mili.Kalia@ouh.nhs.uk

Limited spaces available.

About the speakers:

Professor Shaun Treweek, Chair in Health Services Research, University of Aberdeen, is active in the field of efficient trial design, particularly pragmatic trial design, improved recruitment and retention interventions for trials, the design of complex interventions and the effective presentation of research evidence.

Dr. Louise Silver (Research Coordinator, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford) Title: Inclusive Recruitment for Clinical Observational Studies (Stroke and Dementia sub-theme)

Dr Haleema Aslam (Community Liaison Manager, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford) Title: Community Engagement with Disadvantaged Communities in Cancer Research. (Cancer Theme)

Dr Robert Shaw (Honorary Consultant, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Infectious Diseases & Microbiology Physician, Clinical vaccinologist & Principal Investigator, Oxford Vaccine Group) Title: Ethnic diversity and inclusion- Experiences delivering policy-relevant studies during a pandemic (Vaccine Theme)

Research Inclusivity Training- webinar series:

For details of all three webinars in the series with the 3rd webinar in 2025 being held on 8th December, please visit: Inclusivity Training for Health and Care Researchers, Nov-Dec 2025. Please note, these will be repeated in 2026.

These sessions are for research staff affiliated with the following Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health

Privacy Notice: We adhere to the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018- https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/. Any data collected is used to improve services.

Privacy Statement NIHR – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-privacy-policy

Webinar - Socio-economic Disadvantage Inclusion Training
2025-12-08 10:00 - 11:30
with Dr Heidi R Green.

This is the final webinar in a 3-part series of online inclusivity training sessions for health and care researchers organised by six NIHR Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health, with the aim of helping you to help embed inclusion in your research. (Note, these sessions will be repeated in 2026).

This webinar will provide strategies to reduce barriers in health inequalities and understand challenges faced by disadvantaged communities. Session includes a case study and the NIHR INCLUDE Socio-economic Disadvantage Framework.

For any questions about this session, please contact: Georgina Norris, PPIE Coordinator, NIHR Cambridge BRC: georgina.norris3@nhs.net

Limited spaces available.

About the speaker:

Dr Heidi R Green is a Health Equity and Patient Involvement Specialist and a Creative Qualitative Researcher who co-developed the NIHR INCLUDE Socio-economic disadvantage framework which has been designed to aid researchers who are designing clinical trials to consider barriers to including patients from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds in their trial. The framework can also help researchers to develop strategies to attempt to address such barriers in order to improve the design and conduct of clinical research.

With over a decade of experience leading the design and delivery of innovative and award-winning projects, Heidi is an experienced health equity specialist, creative qualitative researcher, and lived experience advocate. Her mission is to embed accessibility and inclusivity into all of the projects she’s involved in, driving change for those that stand to benefit most.

These sessions are for research staff affiliated with the following Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health.

Privacy Notice: We adhere to the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018- https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/. Any data collected is used to improve services.

Privacy Statement NIHR – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-privacy-policy

Webinar - Reviewing lay summaries as a public partner (online training)
2026-01-22 12:00 - 13:30
This informative and practical online training session will discuss the importance of lay summaries (or plain English summaries) in medical research and what’s involved in a lay reviewer role.

Who’s it for?

It’s aimed at members of the public who would like to contribute to the research process. This session will give you the skills and confidence to be a lay reviewer when the opportunity arises.

You will get practical advice from a public partner and researchers who work in patient and public involvement and research. You can have a go at reviewing a lay summary as part of a supportive team and also receive a checklist of what to do if you are asked to be a reviewer.

Limited spaces – register below:

Speakers:

Sue Duncombe: Patient and Public Advisory Group member, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre

Cassy Fiford: Public Engagement Officer and infectious disease researcher, University of Oxford

Polly Kerr: Patient and Public Involvement Manager, Medical Sciences Division, Department of Primary Health Care Research, University of Oxford

Angeli Vaid: Training and Inclusion Manager, Patient and Public Involvement, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre

Hosted by Oxford BRC and the University of Oxford. If you have any questions about the training or require adjustments to make this training accessible, please email: Angeli.Vaid@ouh.nhs.uk

Online Training- Reviewing Lay Summaries as a Public Partner.

Online Webinar: Ethnicity Inclusion Training with Prof. Shaun Treweek.
2026-01-27 10:30 - 12:00
An informative session on the practical tools needed for ethnicity inclusion in health research. Covering the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, useful resources and researcher(s) case study.

ONLINE EVENT Hosted by Moorfields BRC. For any questions about this session, please contact:

Helen Baker, PPIE Lead, h.baker@ucl.ac.uk

About the speaker:

Professor Shaun Treweek, Chair in Health Services Research, University of Aberdeen, is active in the field of efficient trial design, particularly pragmatic trial design, improved recruitment and retention interventions for trials, the design of complex interventions and the effective presentation of research evidence.

This is part of our Spring online series of Inclusivity training for Health and Care Researchers.

We’re collaborating with five other NIHR Biomedical Research Centres: Oxford Health, Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, to bring you a series of engaging online training sessions with experts and researchers to help embed inclusion in your research

Please find dates for your diary and info. below for our two further training sessions:

3rd Feb 2026: Socio-economic Disadvantage Inclusion training with Dr. Heidi R Green:Register here.

5th March 2026: Online Workshop: Why People Say Yes (or No): The Psychology of Trial ParticipationRegister here.

Online Inclusivity in Research Training

These sessions are for research staff affiliated with the following Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health

Privacy Notice: We adhere to the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018-https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/. Any data collected is used to improve services.

Privacy Statement NIHR – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-privacy-policy

Online Webinar: Socio-economic Disadvantage Inclusion Training with Dr. Heidi R Green.
2026-02-03 13:30 - 15:00
Providing strategies to reduce barriers in health inequalities and understand challenges faced by disadvantaged communities. The session includes a case study and the NIHR INCLUDE Socio-economic Disadvantage Framework.

ONLINE EVENT Hosted by Barts BRC. For any questions about this session, please contact:

Abida Firdaws, PPIE & ACD Administrator, a.firdaws@qmul.ac.uk

About the speaker:

Dr Heidi R Green is a Health Equity and Patient Involvement Specialist and a Creative Qualitative Researcher who co-developed the NIHR INCLUDE Socio-economic disadvantage framework which has been designed to aid researchers who are designing clinical trials to consider barriers to including patients from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds in their trial. The framework can also help researchers to develop strategies to attempt to address such barriers in order to improve the design and conduct of clinical research.

With over a decade of experience leading the design and delivery of innovative and award-winning projects, Heidi is an experienced health equity specialist, creative qualitative researcher, and lived experience advocate. Her mission is to embed accessibility and inclusivity into all of the projects she’s involved in, driving change for those that stand to benefit most.

This is part of our Spring online series of Inclusivity training for Health and Care Researchers.

We’re collaborating with five other NIHR Biomedical Research Centres: Oxford Health, Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, to bring you a series of engaging online training sessions with experts and researchers to help embed inclusion in your research

Please find dates for your diary and info. below for our third training session this Spring. We’re also repeating this series in the Summer Term.

5th March 2026: Online Workshop: Why People Say Yes (or No): The Psychology of Trial ParticipationRegister here.

Online Inclusivity in Research Training

These sessions are for research staff affiliated with the following Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health

Privacy Notice: We adhere to the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018-https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/. Any data collected is used to improve services.

Privacy Statement NIHR – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-privacy-policy

FREE Public Talk – Can electrodes in the brain treat chronic pain?
2026-02-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Rewley House, Department for Continuing Education, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a recognised way of tackling tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease. Now this technique – delivering an electrical pulse into the brain – is being explored as a potential treatment for other neurological conditions.A new study is looking at whether DBS can help to treat chronic pain in people who have suffered a stroke. Central post-stroke pain (CPSP) is a disabling – and currently untreatable – condition which affects areas of the brain and central nervous system that process pain signals.In this public talk, Alex Green, Professor of Neurosurgery, and Ben Seymour, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, will discuss the EPIONE study, which is investigating whether DBS could be used to treat CPSP, and if this technique might be a way of tackling other brain-related conditions.The EPIONE study (Effective Pain Interventions with Neural Engineering) is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford and Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centres (BRC), who are jointly organising this talk.

FREE entry, no booking required.

Refreshments from 5.40pm, for a 6pm start.

Leadership Workshop: Research ideation & funding pathways beyond the obvious
2026-02-24 09:00 - 13:00
The ASCEND Network, a research leadership group open to staff who identify as women or gender non-conforming, is hosting a leadership workshop on ‘Research Ideation – Finding the White Space’ and ‘Funding Pathways Beyond the Obvious’.

Date: Tuesday 24th FebruaryTime: 9:00-13:00 (lunch will be provided)

Venue: Rosemary Rue Meeting Room 2 in the Richard Doll Building

Registrations for this event have now closed. You can join the ASCEND Network to receive information on any future events and opportunities below.

We hope that by the end of the workshop, participants will have new ideas or directions for their research and a new list of funding options, with one of those options having been explored in more depth.

This event is only open to members of the ASCEND Network and is aimed at principal investigators, group leaders and those looking to grow as independent researchers.

If the workshop is oversubscribed, information provided in the registration form may be used to allocate places to those who would benefit most from the workshop, so please ensure it is completed in full.

Please note, you must be a member of the network to attend the workshop

Join the network

Online Workshop: Why People Say Yes (or No): The Psychology of Trial Participation, with Cherish Boxall.
2026-03-05 10:00 - 23:30
About the workshop

This online workshop applies behavioural science to the real-world decisions people make about taking part in research. You’ll be introduced to fast, automatic thinking (System 1) and slow, deliberate thinking (System 2) and use them to map key decision points across the recruitment journey. You’ll identify what can drive early awareness and interest in research, and what supports a confident, well-informed decision at consent, so the recruitment pathway can be designed to be both effective and ethically robust.

The workshop includes short reflective exercises to increase awareness of how unconscious bias, assumptions, and “snap judgements” can influence the behaviour of research staff. You will leave with practical actions to help move unconscious bias into conscious awareness to help support informed, inclusive research design.

Limited spaces, register below:

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

Identify common cognitive biases and where they can show up in recruitment and consent pathways.

Recognise how cultural and social influences can affect decision-making.

Explore your own decision-making defaults and use simple techniques to bring fast judgments into awareness.

Apply behavioural science to design clearer, more motivating participant communications (e.g., recruitment adverts).

Preparation and what to expect

Most activities are individual reflection and applied work guided by our resource pack, with optional chat sharing.

Before you join (5–10 minutes):

Have the pack open or printed (sent by email).

Please come with a current or recent study in mind (including your target population and a high-level recruitment approach) to anchor the activities

What you will leave with

2–3 behaviour-based strategies to test in your study

Bias “pause points” to strengthen inclusive decision-making

A map of System 1 vs System 2 moments in your recruitment pathway

About the trainer:

Cherish Boxall, founder of Engage Intelligently, and recipient of two consecutive NIHR Fellowships, brings a behavioural-science lens to over 15 years of experience securing competitive research funding and delivering clinical trials. She specialises in translating evidence on inclusion and participant behaviour into practical, effective strategies. Expect real-world examples, actionable takeaways, and plenty of time throughout the session for your questions.

Who should attend?

Research and staff affiliated with Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford, and Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centres who want to strengthen inclusive recruitment and retention.

If you have any questions with regards to this training, please contact: Mili Kalia (Oxford BRC’s EDI Manager), Email: Mili.Kalia@ouh.nhs.uk

This is the third session in our Spring online series of Inclusivity Training for Health and Care Researchers. Please note, we are repeating this series in the Summer Term.

We’ve collaborating with five other NIHR Biomedical Research Centres: Oxford Health, Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, to bring you a series of engaging online training sessions with experts and researchers to help embed inclusion in your research

Full Spring Series poster below – more to follow in Summer Term.

These sessions are for research staff affiliated with the following Biomedical Research Centres: Barts, Birmingham, Cambridge, Moorfields, Oxford and Oxford Health

Privacy Notice: We adhere to the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018-https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/. Any data collected is used to improve services.

Privacy Statement NIHR – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-privacy-policy
