Why Mental Health Research Matters: Co-ordinating an Impact and Engagement Programme for UKRI funded Mental Health Networks

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This application to carry out the role of Mental Health Networks Coordinator for eight mental health networks funded by UKRI was led by Professor Elaine Fox until January 2022, and the final phase of work is being led by Professor Cathy Creswell. Cathy is leading a facilitation team to deliver a national mental health research campaign called "Why Mental Health Research Matters". This proposal was designed to maximise the potential within the existing mental health networks and add value to them through 40 months of coordination and facilitation activities, by collating outputs produced by the networks, helping them to work together to produce new content around themes chosen to maximise messages about the importance of mental health research, and highlighting their latest research findings. Our accessible website helps increase the impact of the networks.The proposal had six core objectives.1. To understand the potential within the existing networks to achieve a step-change in cross-disciplinary mental health research and identify potential gaps, making plans to address these by widening membership and interest further.2. To work closely with UKRI to maximise the potential from all mental health research funders within their portfolios, learning from their policy teams on how to influence government and act as a point of contact to maximise the impact of the current funding.3. To facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas between networks and make plans for joint activities and outputs.4. To encourage co-production within the networks and create linkages between members, particularly emphasising lived experience expertise to create new research proposals, and document this journey as part of the impact story.5. To work with early career researchers to develop a vibrant community of researchers working in mental health research, and develop areas of science that particularly matter to this group including open science.6. To build and deliver a national campaign called "Why Mental Health Research Matters" using social media as well as podcasts, webinars, short films and infographics.This is an ambitious programme with UK-wide coverage. We want to ensure that all parts of the UK can contribute and that many areas: biotechnology, social science, arts, humanities, engineering, cultural studies, medical and health sciences, & environmental science can become involved. communications co-oordinator who has lived experience of mental health issues - will work four days a week alongside the project lead. An important role of this digital communications coordinator will be to prioritise the creation of broad cross-disciplinary conversations across all of the networks. These two posts Project lead and a communications co-ordinator will bring professorial experience together with lived experience expertise. They have been supported by an excellent team including Dr Sam Parsons (whose role finished in October 2021), an early-career psychology researcher at Oxford who is an expert in improving research and science practice (e.g., Open Science approaches). In addition, we have a team of communications and mental health experts including Dr Vanessa Pinfold who is a co-founder of The McPin Foundation and a leader in ensuring patient involvement in mental health research; Andre Tomlin founder of The Mental Elf, which is a leading social media platform on mental health. The focus will be entirely on impact and public engagement, seeking to add value and enhance the value of the networks that were established in 2018.