PenARC (NIHR ARC South West Peninsula)

Join us for the Three NIHR Research Schools’ Mental Health Programme seminar: Systemic influences on parent carer mental health and co-creation of resources to inform service improvement.

📅 31 March | 12:30–13:30

🔗 tinyurl.com/u4cmv5fp

Registration is now open for the PPIE Summer School!

Exeter | 1–3 July 2026

A 3-day, in-person event bringing together researchers & public contributors to explore meaningful involvement in health & care research.

Find out more: tinyurl.com/37x32cy4

#PPIE #HealthResearch

@arc-yharc.bsky.social @arcnenc.bsky.social
@arcnwc.bsky.social @arc-nwl.bsky.social @arc-southlondon.bsky.social @arc-west.bsky.social @arc-wm.bsky.social

National conference showcases groundbreaking child and maternal health research - PenARC A national conference brought together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and families to showcase the latest research and innovations in child and maternal health.   Hosted by NIHR Applied Resear...

Topics covered innovations in:

- Care during pregnancy and birth
- Paediatric and mental healthcare
- Public health and special educational needs
- Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement

Read more about the event in the post event briefing here 👉 bit.ly/40CTzaR

Innovative research projects, which align with the government’s priority of moving from treatment to prevention, were shared on the day through presentations, workshops, posters and panels.

Following the @nihr.bsky.social ARC Children’s Health and Maternity Programme summer showcase event in London, we’ve published a new briefing which highlights impactful child and maternal health research from across the ARC network 👇

We spent the morning at PenARC’s PPIE Celebration event. From highlights & shared successes to interactive sessions, there’s huge pride in what’s been achieved & real ambition for the future. Five years of impact, collaboration and learning to build on💬✨

Stay tuned for more reflections!

#PPIE

Tomorrow is Rare Disease Day 🦓 3.5 million people live with a rare condition in the UK. The Exeter PRP Evidence Review Facility, led by PenARC’s Prof Jo Thompson Coon, developed a toolkit highlighting inequalities in care 🔗 bit.ly/4shkmFI 🧦We’re in zebra socks to support!
#RareDiseaseDay

ATTEND: (Adolescents and carers using mindfulness Therapy To END depression) Can a novel intervention, Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers (MAC), improve recovery among young people (15-18 years-old) with depression who have failed to completely respond to first line treatm...

Ongoing support matters.

ATTEND, a PenARC & @arceastofengland.bsky.social supported project, explores whether a teenager-friendly version of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can help reduce recurrent depression.

More info here: tinyurl.com/42dr4fhc

Thanks for tuning in!

#CMHW2026

CAMHS goes wild - PenARC Background There is increasing evidence that being in natural environments has many mental health benefits. However, we are still not sure how best to integrate nature-based approaches into current sp...

Nature can play a powerful role in improving mental health🌿

CAMHS Goes Wild explored how nature-based approaches could be integrated into CAMHS - looking at feasibility, barriers, & benefits for staff & young people.

More info here: tinyurl.com/35cahm3r

#CMHW2026

CHOICES: CHildren and young people’s Options In the Community for Enhancing wellbeing through Social prescribing. - PenARC Growing the evidence base around social prescribing in the primary care and public health arenas for children and young people.

Feeling connected to your community matters.

CHOICES explored how social prescribing & community activities can support young people’s mental health early.

More info here: arc-swp.nihr.ac.uk/research/pro...

#ChildrensMentalHealthWeek #CMHW2026 #Place2Be

Kailo – A systemic approach to improving adolescent mental health - PenARC Developing an evidence-informed framework to address the underlying drivers of poor adolescent mental health.

Mental health support shouldn’t wait for crisis.

Kailo is a preventative, evidence-informed framework helping local partners co-design place-based support for adolescent mental health.

More info: bit.ly/4ral6w5

#ChildrensMentalHealthWeek
#CMHW2026

Research Please see below for current and past projects.

This #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek, we’re supporting Place2Be 💛

PenARC is improving mental health care for children through projects like MyVoice and ADaPT.

More here: bit.ly/3NWDBFE & bit.ly/46qSg20

More to come this week👇

#ThisIsMyPlace #CMHW2026

Waiting for a hip replacement in the UK?

Researchers want to know what matters most to you about surgery and recovery.

Eligible if you:

Live in the UK
Had/are planning hip replacement
Surgery is due to long-term pain (not an accident/fracture)

bristolexppsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

NIHR funded AI project improving stroke outcomes wins national Patient Safety Award - PenARC A pioneering research collaboration supported by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC) has been recognised with a national Patient Safety Award at this year’s Health Servic...

The TASC collaboration, supported by PenARC, has been recognised with a national Patient Safety Award for AI use to personalise clot-busting treatment & reduce delays🏆

Stroke affects 100,000+ people in the UK each year.

More here: tinyurl.com/4pdwfbb5

#HealthResearch #Stroke #PatientCentredCare

The NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) February 2026 newsletter The national newsletter from across all the NIHR ARCs. In this edition: The first major trial to reduce social media use among healthy adolescents, Continuous care from community-based midwives reduce...

🗞️ Read the February national roundup of top stories from all ARCs across the country:

mailchi.mp/nihr/februar...

Including news, resources, blogs, events, opportunities & much more

📨 Join the newsletter tinyurl.com/ARCsnewsletter

PenARC researchers awarded £11m NIHR funding for mental health programme - PenARC Professor Richard Byng, PenARC Deputy Director, and Dr Rebecca Hardwick, PenARC Senior Research Fellow (Mental Health), are among the senior researchers awarded funding through the NIHR Mental Health ...

🎉 Big news for mental health research in the South West!

PenARC & @plymuni.bsky.social researchers are leading a new £11m @nihr.bsky.social programme exploring how mental health care can better meet people’s needs across the peninsula.

🔗More here: bit.ly/4q7jemp

#MentalHealthResearch

We're extremely pleased to share that a publication from our living alone project has been selected as the INTERDEM article of the month!

INTERDEM interdem.org is a pan-European network for research in early, timely and quality psychosocial interventions in dementia🌏

Article🔗 shorturl.at/pAJev

Our new video made in collab with South Western Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust shows how tranexamic acid (TXA) is having a major impact in trauma care.

Watch here 👉 bit.ly/3LpHpyj

#PreHospitalCare #Paramedics #TXA

Learning from Each Other: Public Involvement in Maternal Mental Health Research Webinar - PenARC “Every person you meet knows something you don’t; learn from them” (H. Jackson Brown Jr.)  Maternal mental health research has the power to shape care, policy, and lived experiences – but only when th...

New on the PenARC blog! 🌱

Reflections from a recent webinar on public involvement in maternal mental health research - exploring co-production, lived experience expertise, and what happens when research is shaped with the public.

Read here: bit.ly/3Zr7Wyg

PhDs - PenARC

📢 New funded PhD opportunities.

Up to 8 PhD studentships starting Sept 2026.

We’re inviting outline proposals from supervisory teams aligned with PenARC research themes.

Deadline: 2nd Feb, 5pm

🔗 Details & timelines: tinyurl.com/2nktbtc7

Undergraduate Summer Internship in Health Data Research

🚨The Health Data Research UK & Wellcome Biomedical Vacation Scholarship offers paid summer projects, expert mentorship & real-world health data research experience.

All students welcome, especially from lower socioeconomic backgrounds & non-Russell Group Unis

🔗More info here: bit.ly/3YxNoEb

NIHR National Institute for Health and Care Research. Applied Research Collaborations. Top 25 stories of 2025.

Happy New Year from all the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) across the country!
🎉
Here are our 25 most popular newsletter stories from 2025:
mailchi.mp/nihr/nihr-ar...
🌟
What a variety!
Scroll to the end to see the top-most clicked-on stories
🖱️

Two additional NIHR internships are now open for applications

Mar–Sept 2026

Theme Two: Growing Into Research

For registered health & care professionals (excl. doctors & dentists)

£10,000 funding per intern

Protected time to develop research skills

Apply by 31/01/26

tinyurl.com/bddje47n

PenARC supported midwife training programme reducing women’s pelvic floor problems - PenARC A Devon midwife is witnessing first-hand the impact of teaching preventative pelvic floor education in antenatal care, where previously it wasn’t routinely provided – or understood.  Lizzie Phillips, ...

Preventative pelvic floor education transforms women’s lives 💙 With PenARC support, APPEAL is helping reduce long-term pelvic floor problems for women in Devon & beyond. Find out how midwives are changing antenatal care: bit.ly/49707T1
W. Health Innovation South West & @uniofexeternews.bsky.social

NIHR National Institute for Health and Care Research. #ARCadvent Top ARC stories of the year. Day 10: Physical activity for older adults in lower socioeconomic groups. Picture: Older woman exercising.

#ARCadvent day 🔟:

A review co-funded by @arc-gm.bsky.social reveals important insights into physical activity interventions for older adults from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, highlighting key factors that could make these interventions more appealing.

arc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/news/news/NE...

Join us for the Public Involvement in Maternal Mental Health Research seminar! 💻

• 20 Jan 2026
• 10:30 AM
• Online
• Free

A great opportunity to hear how researchers and public partners are shaping maternal mental health research together.

tinyurl.com/y56c9m24

#PublicInvolvement #CoProduction

Great news! PenARC’s Tom Monks is a recipient of the Goodeve Medal 2025 from the Operational Research Society for a paper on tackling NHS hospital overcrowding.

Huge congratulations to Tom and his co-authors on this well-deserved recognition! 🎉

🔗https://bit.ly/4aafr3z

New £1m fund to accelerate research access to data - southwestsde-nhs-uk The South West Secure Data Environment (SDE) is encouraging organisations that hold health and social care data in the South West to share more of their data, to drive ground-breaking research and inn...

New £1 M fund from to help organisations in SW region make health & care data “research-ready”. Eligible bodies can get £25K-£125K to prepare datasets (records, imaging, genomics, social care, etc.) for secure research.

Find more info:

tinyurl.com/y9ttunwa

#NIHR

❄️🗓️🎀 Count down to the holidays with our popular #ARCadvent calendar from all ARCs across the country!

☃️🎁👉 Follow #ARCadvent from 1-25 December for daily posts unboxing the most clicked-on ARC stories of the year

📧 Join our national newsletter tinyurl.com/ARCsnewsletter