The Barts Precision Medicine Academy (BPMA) is responsible for delivering the BRCs academic career development aims and objectives that will foster the growth and advancement of researchers within the delivery partnership.
The BPMA incorporates research across our multidisciplinary healthcare team and provides high-quality, inclusive training strongly focused on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) for existing and new faculty throughout their career path.
The aim of the BPMA is to promote interdisciplinary translational research mentoring and develop a progressive researcher development infrastructure that is strongly focused on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
The BPMA will prioritise career transitions, which have been identified as a major challenge to progression.
The following are the objectives of the BPMA:
To achieve these objectives, we established the BPMA Career Development Group (CDG) consisting of the Chair, public and patients' representatives, theme representatives, leads in NAPs, EDI, Trust Education and trainee representatives who will oversee training and mentorship, foster innovation, and track outcomes.
The BPMA CDG will devise criteria for BRC spend on capacity building, coordinate assessment, and identify and plug training gaps to maximise the value of the investment. The BPMA reports to the BRC Executive and PPIE/P Panel (see Annex 1) with Petersen representing the BPMA as a member of the BRC Executive and liaising with other relevant BRC governance groups and delivery partners.
The BPMA incorporates research across our multidisciplinary healthcare team and will provide high quality, inclusive training strongly focused on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for existing and new faculty throughout their career path. It includes medical trainees, nurses, and allied professionals (NAP) at various career stages who will become BPMA Fellows directly connected to the NIHR Academy.
BPMA Fellows are trained to conduct interdisciplinary translational research mentoring and be mentored within an inclusive, progressive researcher development infrastructure. Strong focus is on career transitions, which has been identified as a major challenge to progression. Our BPMA Fellows learn to address local and national research priorities, engaging with patients and stakeholders and fostering a positive clinical research culture.
The BPMA invests in, leverages extant research capacity building programmes, and supports nationally competitive fellowship applications at all levels to maximise the quality and number of BPMA Fellows that join the NIHR Academy and benefit from national training. These Fellows in turn amplify BPMA’s mission by mentoring others.
Queen Mary University of London is the most inclusive university of its kind; with a 16% increase in PhD students from ethnic minority backgrounds and 60% of QMUL’s currently registered PhD students being women. EDI is at the heart of QMUL’s strategy to 2030. We have regular, mandatory EDI training and will tackle unconscious bias at shortlisting and selection offering support to BPMA Fellows who may be at risk of discrimination during transitional phases.
The BPMA complements the NIHR Academy’s strategy to build research capacity by focusing on barriers and enablers to career progression through:
The Barts BRC supports registered nurses to come out of their clinical practice areas into the research-nursing environment on a part-time seconded basis to undertake a range of research projects, such as:
BRC linked training opportunities are made available on BRC partnership Intranets, examples include: