Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point.
Sadaf: I worked as an administrator, then as an editorial assistant at a magazine, then started working as a PA in NMPC. Moved to the Research Office as a Research Support Officer, then I was seconded to the Senior Research Officer role, currently I’m the Research Support Manager.
Jackie: I’ve worked at King's in this faculty for 11 years now as a Professor. I came here from Warwick Medical School where I had enjoyed my early and mid-career years working in strong multidisciplinary research teams. Moving to King’s was very much a decision to return to my nursing roots. I am a mental health and an adult nurse; my earlier clinical years, my doctoral and post-doc training in behavioural medicine took me on the journey to converge the mental and physical health aspects of patient care experience and need. I have been Head of Research Division for Care in Long term Conditions (CLTC) for two and a half years now and I really enjoy that as a division we have expertise in both mental health and physical health long term conditions.
Could you tell us more about the project and its intended impact?
Jackie: As a research team, we had been persevering for around four years to achieve funding success in evaluating a potential novel brief therapy for PTSD. In 2019, we were funded by the Forces in Mind Trust, who fund research to support UK military veterans, to undertake a feasibility trial of the novel therapy compared to the gold standard therapy for PTSD. Our results demonstrated that we could recruit veterans, they would stay in the research, they would give us good quality data and that the novel therapy was both well received by participants and reduced PTSD symptoms by a surprising amount, more than we were hoping for. We are also evaluating the therapy with NHS health and social care workers with COVID-related PTSD in a very small study at present.
We have also just started the large trial jointly funded by the NIHR EME (Efficacy and Mechanisms) programme and the Forces in Mind Trust in the military veteran population and will be evaluating it with 250 participants over the next four years to determine if it is safe and effective. Importantly, we will also understand more about how the therapy works. It is a potentially game-changing intervention for PTSD, because the duration of the therapy is a third of that of the gold standard therapies of Trauma-Focussed CBT and therapists can be trained and supervised more rapidly, so it could offer treatment for so many more people living with PTSD if we find it to be effective.
What makes a successful research bid?
Sadaf: Really taking the time to think about your research question: what are you hoping to achieve and what elements do you need to achieve the outcome? Could you explain your research project in a 30-second elevator pitch? And would it make sense to the general public? If not, you need to go back and make it more accessible.
Jackie: The team around it. Research funding takes years to achieve and gathering around you those people who have the passion for the research question and will collaborate over years and years as you build small pieces of evidence here and there is crucial. As each proposal begins to take shape, Sadaf and her team become very important to helping us to appraise whether we can afford our funding wish list, liaising with colleagues in pre-award. As the deadline gets closer the pressure for everyone mounts and Sadaf and I can sometimes have hourly contact working on glitches that need ironing out.
What would be your top tip for those seeking research funding?
Sadaf: Find a funding scheme which leans into your research area. From our side too, make sure you're costing appropriately and thinking through what resources you will need to support the funding application.
Jackie: Be ready to accelerate when an opportunity presents itself, don’t put all of your research ideas into the same basket and try and always have one grant under review: it makes rejection letters so much more bearable.
What are the key ingredients of a successful collaborative working relationship?
Sadaf: Respect and patience for each other’s work commitments and communication styles. The Research Support Office is here to support researchers and the wider project team; your success is important to us.
Jackie: Trust, responsiveness and respect for the expertise that others bring to the process.
How does the Research & Impact Support Office support researchers throughout the lifecycle of the project?
Sadaf: Once the academic has submitted the initial project details, we review the funder’s scheme and guidance information. We will then advise the academic of this as well as signposting them to our costing guidance so that they have an idea of what costs to consider when completing their budget. We will also direct them to other colleagues in central services such as our Public Engagement team or advise them to meet with the Research Development Manager or NIHR’s Research Support Service to discuss the finer details of their application. Where possible, we will support with inputting costs onto the funder’s system as this can always be quite tricky. Once the application is near completion, we will review this in line with the budget and make any recommendations or liaise with the Principal Investigator if we have any queries around the costs, and move the application to the submission stage.
And then about four to six months later we will receive notification if the bid was successful – that’s when the fun really begins! Once all contracts have been signed, we will then set up a post-award kick-off meeting with the project team. During this meeting we will discuss any finance guidance, any contracting obligations etc. This is our way of making sure the project gets off the ground and the research team know that we’re here along with our post-award colleagues to support them.
Jackie: My perspective as a Head of Research Division is that the team are visible, accessible and committed to the success of CLTC as a research division. The commitment to visibility at monthly CLTC meetings means that they are known to colleagues and are always happy to participate, answer questions and problem solve.
What is your favourite thing about working at King’s?
Sadaf: My colleagues. We have a great team and an even greater working relationship where we can take five minutes during our day and talk a little nonsense to lighten the load. I also like that at King’s all the resources, from wellbeing to volunteering to events, are there and it’s really your choice how much you engage with it.
Jackie: I love that JCMB is so central and so close to the Southbank. King’s has such a strong international reputation that I take great pride in that too. I would not have left Warwick for any other UK Faculty of Nursing.
What advice would you give you 18-year-old self?
Sadaf: I’d tell her that when people say ‘time moves fast’, it really does. Make the most of it and stop overthinking everything. It’s really not that deep. Recognise that a lot of people’s behaviour comes from ignorance, not malice. Give yourself love and kindness first.
Jackie: Actually my 18-year-old self was pretty well sorted. I would like to tell my 14-year-old self to stop having so much fun and get on with some schoolwork. I’m not saying that I would have wanted my studies and career to have been very much different, but it might have saved me an academic lifetime of thinking that I had reached my own glass ceiling. Thank goodness for senior colleagues and my husband consistently challenging those thoughts, that’s all I can say.
What do you do with your time outside of work?
Sadaf: Comedy shows, theatre, afternoon tea, museums, gardening – depends on my mood (and budget).
Jackie: I’m pretty outdoorsy so love to be walking, running, cycling, skiing and paddleboarding – and even better if I’m doing it with my family and my friends.
Quick fire…
Who inspires you most and why?
Sadaf: My mum. She’s the strongest person I know and has always been underestimated.
Jackie: Right now, at this stage in my career, research active academics in their seventies and eighties.
What's one thing about you that surprises people?
Sadaf: The number of piercings I have, maybe. Or if meeting me over email, that I’m not male.
Jackie: My alternate career would have been singing and dancing in the West End chorus line.
Favourite way to spend a day?
Sadaf: Working on crafty projects and listening to a good podcast.
Jackie: A sunny day in the snowy Alps in winter, skiing with my husband, my newly betrothed son, and daughter, and their partners.