Research

At a summary level, we aim to:

1. Facilitate the production of evidence about the value of occupation and participation including impact and potential economic value
2. Facilitate the implementation and adoption of evidence in practice

Within this, we hope to:

i/ Broaden the ethos of enquiry and knowledge creation in all aspects of occupational therapy to support the creation a research, innovation and enterprise base.

ii/ Ensure our professionally occupation focussed, intra and interdisciplinary high quality research and innovation activity directly informs, influences, and influences on the communities in which we work.

iii/ Support the accessibility and availability of our research and scholarship to our local, regional, national, and international audiences.

iv/ Grow and develop our community of researchers and innovators through supporting their development from early career researchers to established experts and leaders in their field.

v/ Grow our productive partnerships; professional body; research based institutions; health and social care; and other stakeholders.

vi/ Support the implementation, translation, adoption of occupation focussed evidence based practice by occupational therapists.

To this end, the Trust will support the funding of research grants ranging of £25,000 to £200,000 for individuals or groups of researchers. The aim will be to build capacity in evidence generation & knowledge mobilisation such that occupational therapists will use evidence overtly in day to day practice.

Our annual call for research study applications is now open.

This year the Trust will be offering funding for innovative studies, with priority given to those that consider:

Funding for studies between £10,000 – £100,000 is available with value for money an essential factor to allow the Trust to support as any projects as possible.

Read there full call here. Expressions of interest as an outline proposal should be submitted no later than Friday 13 May, 17:00BST to Pam at [email protected]

In 2021 the Trust made two research awards following our call for proposals looking at Occupational Therapy: 2021 and beyond. In total almost £100,000 was granted for:

1. a study by Dr Anita Atwal of London Southbank University, together with Professor Elizabeth McKay (Edinburgh Napier University) and Dr Vimal Sriram (Imperial College London): No Barriers to Success: Safe space as a vehicle to promote personal and career transitions for BAME OTs and Managers, and
2. a study by Alicia Ridout of Involve Me Digital Health, together with Emma Casimir (HMA Digital): Co-designing a competency-based programme to build novice Occupational Therapy digital health practice: Crossing the flaky bridge.

To read more about these studies and their aims, take a look here.