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About us
Southampton Academy of Research (SoAR) supports health professionals at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) to explore and pursue a career that incorporates health-related research.
SoAR provides career advice and support for those who work in health research at UHS, or aspire to do so. We help people from a wide range of professions, at every stage of their career, to achieve their research goals. This includes nurses, doctors, midwives, allied health professionals, pharmacists and scientists.
The support we offer includes one-to-one advice, training and events. Our aim is to enable people to develop in their careers and thrive as researchers, helping to improve healthcare for patients now and in the future.
Supporting our researchers
SoAR was established in 2016, through a shared vision and collaborative effort of a multidisciplinary team led by Founding Director Emeritus Professor Alison Richardson. Its purpose is to support healthcare professionals at UHS to establish, develop and advance their clinical research careers. SoAR is committed to strengthening clinical academic research across the Trust.
Working collaboratively with colleagues across the Trust, SoAR promotes and enables a culture of research engagement among all staff. We believe that research should be accessible to everyone, regardless of role or background. Our contribution to this growing culture is to support, encourage and inform healthcare professionals as they develop their research careers - beginning as individuals, progressing to advocates who inspire peers, and ultimately becoming leaders who drive innovation and improve patient care.
Through active engagement with healthcare colleagues, SoAR plays a key role in building research capacity and capability within UHS. We also encourage participation in the wider local, regional, and national research landscape.
Within UHS, SoAR is dedicated to making Southampton an outstanding place to work and learn. We recognise and value the research contributions of our colleagues and support all staff in playing a role in advancing discoveries that benefit patients. We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our work, actively supporting and empowering all colleagues to realise their full potential, working closely with the Southampton Centre for Research Engagement and Impact (SCREI) and supporting the principles of the REDiC Incubator.
Governance and partners
SoAR is led by our Co-Directors and reports to Research & Development (R&D) senior leadership through the UHS/University of Southampton Joint Executive Group - Research commitee. SoAR meets with its partners twice a year at Programme Oversight Group meetings.
Our partners are:
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Southampton
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration: Wessex
NIHR Clinical Research Facility: Southampton
University of Southampton, Faculty of Medicine
University of Southampton, School of Health Sciences
Wessex Health Partners
Working collaboratively with our partners, SoAR plays a key role in building research capacity and capability within UHS, and encourages participation in the wider local and regional research landscape.
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UoS: University of Southampton
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IMI: Institute for Medical Innovation
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WISH & AMR labs: Wessex Investigational Sciences Hub and translational Antimicrobial Resistance laboratories
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NIHR ECMC: Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres
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MRC LEU: MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
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NIHR SPCR: School for Primary Care Research
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SCTU: Southampton Clinical Trials Unit
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UHS: University Hospital Southampton
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SCREI: Southampton Centre for Research Engagement & Impact
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SETT: Southampton Emerging Therapies and Technologies Centre
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SoAR: Southampton Academy of Research