In this blog, three ARC East of England Researchers in Residence share how their roles have developed to collaborate with social care organisations in building research capacity.
Researchers in Residence (RiRs) are postdoctoral researchers with expertise in health and social care. We support health and social care organisations to develop their ability to deliver research and apply the findings to improve practice. The RiR role primarily focuses on reducing the gap between research and practice by building capacity to grow the evidence base.
For example, RiRs can help an organisation to plan a robust service evaluation or quality improvement project, enable the delivery of academic research studies, or advise on using reliable evidence to inform commissioning decisions or service provision. RiR roles may be part-time or full-time and are suitable for early career researchers who are interested in the impact of research methodology and evidence, in our case collaborating with adult social care organisations in the East of England to improve services and practice.
Three RiRs have been recruited across the region since 2023, hosted by Local Authorities.
Dr Lida Efstathopoulou worked as a RiR at Hertfordshire County Council with the University of Hertfordshire from July 2023 to July 2024, Dr Marina Buswell is a RiR at Norfolk County Council with the University of East Anglia from September 2024 to August 2025 and Dr Aaron Wyllie is a RiR at Thurrock Council with the University of Essex from January 2025 to March 2026.
“We know from literature that using research evidence in practice can improve health and care service quality. While investment in social care research has gradually increased over time, the research capacity of social care organisations remains limited. We can encourage more social care practitioners to conduct or use research by increasing awareness of its value in supporting daily practice.”
Dr Lida Efstathopoulou, Researcher in Residence, Hertfordshire County Council
For example, when a social care practitioner is assessing a person’s needs to plan their care, they could consider how research evidence helps to inform care planning. Similarly, when commissioners make decisions about social care provision, they can explore how the best available evidence can be used to guide commissioning decisions.
In social care services (across both adult and children’s services) workforce composition, resource constraints and funding arrangements can limit research delivery and capacity to find or develop research evidence and put it into practice. RiR postholders work collaboratively with their host social care organisation to identify priority areas and support teams to develop their research ideas and capacity. They are growing a social care practitioner research network, to gather and formulate practice questions. East of England RiRs are scoping opportunities to develop research infrastructure, acting as learning partners to upskill social care practitioners, supporting their research bids and pathways, and advising how to disseminate research findings, as well as identify and use robust evidence to improve social care service provision.
Marina is currently working with Norfolk County Council’s co-production lead to review how they gather and use resident feedback with a new contact form.
“I love problem solving and getting people together to work on a problem. This role looked like a great opportunity to do that. We are trying to address how best to support evidence enriched practice in social care. The key challenges are combining qualitative data from people’s experiences with systems modelling and identifying the drivers for social care research.”
Marina Buswell, Researcher in Residence, Norfolk County Council
RiRs have versatile roles and multiple opportunities to help develop projects, procedures, and steer decisions to enhance and manage the organisation’s capacity to deliver and benefit from research. A RiR acts as boundary spanner, with specialist knowledge and expertise to connect research institutions with social care organisations, and establish sustainable relationships between researchers and practitioners.
“Through collaboration between research and practice, we can gain a more nuanced understanding of service delivery in social care, as well as the practical challenges encountered on a daily basis. This interaction can inform our knowledge about key challenges that we should be prioritising when researching social care.”
Dr Aaron Wyllie, Researcher in Residence, Thurrock Council
Developing research capacity in social care is supported by the ASCENT Social Care Research Development Programme, a NIHR funded programme that started in April 2024 for two years and coordinated by Dr Lida Efstathopoulou. ASCENT is coordinated by the ARC EoE Academic Career Development Lead Professor Eneida Mioshi and Theme Lead Professor Kathryn Almack, who also co-led the Social Care Research in Practice Teams (SCRiPT) study to build research capacity in adult social care and social work. The first RiR post was part of the SCRiPT study which received positive feedback from the host, Hertfordshire County Council. This led to the rollout of the ASCENT RiR model across the region in three more councils, which decided to co-fund RiR posts for one year to continue the benefits.
The ASCENT programme built on the social care network developed by SCRiPT and further engaged with Local Authorities, continuing to strengthen relationships between regional universities and adult social care and starting to develop a children’s social care network. Seven county councils, five universities and three research organisations are members of the ASCENT Network, invited to meet quarterly and participate in decisions to invest in research capacity across the region. The ASCENT team organised two workshops with people who access care and carers to explore their experiences and how to develop research capacity in adult social care.
The RiR roles aim to have an impact by increasing organisational research capacity in social care settings to ultimately improve the quality of services. There are a number of ways identified in literature to evaluate their impact on research capacity, including measuring research outputs and use of evidence, developing individuals’ or teams’ skills or improving procedures to facilitate research. We are currently planning the evaluation of RiR roles to assess their impact on health and social care research capacity, practice and services in this region.
Becoming a RiR is an opportunity to help Local Authorities address a range of health and social care challenges and learn more about service provision. Two further RiR part-time roles will be advertised in 2025, suitable for postdoctoral researchers to be seconded (two or three days a week) until March 2026, and people will be able to apply soon on the ARC EoE website.
