New Centre for Applied Psychological and Health Research launched
Thu, 01 May 2014 08:30:00 BST
The Institute for Research in Citizenship and Applied Human Sciences (IRCAHS) has made the decision to merge two of its research centres, Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CHSCR) and Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAPR), and launch new Centre for Applied Psychological and Health Research (CAPHR).
Following the departure of Professor Annie Topping, the director of the Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CHSCR), it was decided to review the research centres within IRCAHS to see whether a more efficient and effective grouping could be found, which would optimise the management of research activities and maximise the potential for collaboration between researchers in health and social care, and other disciplines.
Of the other IRCAHS research centres, the Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAPR) has the strongest links with CHSCR in terms of research focus (a significant amount of research in CAPR concerns the psychosocial aspects of health) and existing cross-centre collaboration and so the decision to merge the two centres was made in order to strengthen existing synergies and foster new ones.
The newly formed Centre for Applied Psychological and Health Research (CAPHR) will be led by the existing directors of CAPR, Professor Nigel King (Director), left and Dr David Peebles (Associate Director), right.
The centre will continue to develop research in the areas of psychology, health and social care to promote the use of psychology theory and methods in a wide range of real-world settings, to support individuals, carers and professional organisations to promote health and wellbeing, and to improve how health and social care services are experienced and delivered. In all of these areas, the new centre will continue to produce research that informs professional practice and policy.
By bringing together researchers in these distinct but related fields, CAPHR aims to foster new relationships and promote interdisciplinary activities that will broaden the scope of research conducted between centre members, more broadly across the university, and with other institutions.
CAPHR plans to hold a variety of research seminars in the future, which will be listed in the Events section of the IRCAHS website.
