Centre for Rural Health (Research Capacity)

The recently awarded £500,000 UHIMI Strategic Delivery Body (SDB) grant, with funding from ERDF, Scottish Funding Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, to expand the research capacity within the Centre for Rural Health is taking the institute in new directions. Since the rebirth of the Centre for Rural Health as a collaborative research institute, jointly funded by UHI Millennium Institute (UHI) and the University of Aberdeen, UHI CRH has thus far focused on 4 areas of research: innovative models of service delivery; new roles; community involvement; measuring & modelling impacts of service change. This project builds on previous successes in these themes and enhances the UHI CRH's expertise and management capacity.

The funding has enabled the recruitment of 2 new staff. A senior research fellow will manage the expanded team and project portfolio as well as developing an expertise in rural health economics. Here the CRH is at the forefront again, as internationally, there are no current specialist rural health economists. A research fellow with skills in modelling & quantitative techniques will complement our current strengths in qualitative and mixed methods techniques. These additional posts will enable the Centre for Rural Health to extend its portfolio of work by enabling economic analysis and modelling to take place.

It will allow the Centre for Rural Health to extend service redesign and change research by exploring the fundamental aspects of service change and innovation in rural areas that require academic, empirical and practical knowledge of business development. Moreover, this new capacity in economics and modelling will allow the Centre for Rural Health to support health services and businesses to assess the economic impact of new products and technologies utilised in rural health provision.

For more information contact Gaener Rodger