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Clinical Director
The Clinical Director for the West Midlands (South) CLRN is Professor Scott Weich. The Clinical Director provides overall leadership for all aspects of the CLRN’s work and its development, supported by the CLRN Executive Group and Senior Manager. In particular, Scott leads the development of CLRN activity, encouraging local clinicians to participate in NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio studies building upon local clinical strengths and research interests and priorities. He is also required to oversee the research management and governance of the CLRN’s activity.
Scott Weich qualified in 1987 at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He trained in Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital before beginning his research career at the Institute of Psychiatry in 1992. He went on to become a Clinical Lecturer and in 1996 was appointed Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the Royal Free. He moved to Warwick Medical School as Foundation Professor of Psychiatry in June 2003.
His main research interests began with (and remain) the epidemiology of the most common mental disorders (CMD), and public mental health. This work has extended to the determinants and consequences of inequalities in rates of mental disorder, and to the study of mental well-being. He has secured research grants from the MRC, Wellcome Trust, NIMHE and NIHR. An active member of the Executive Group for WM (South) CLRN since its inception, Scott became the Clinical Director in October 2010. As an Honorary Consultant with Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, he runs an acute day treatment service for adults with mental illness in Coventry. He is also Trust R&D Lead, chair of the NIHR HTA Psychological and Community Therapies Panel, lead for the Mental Health Group at Warwick Medical School and Executive member of the Heart of England MHRN hub.
Executive Group
The day to day operation of the CLRN is supported by an Executive Group, led by the CLRN Clinical Director, which has representation from primary, secondary and tertiary care and mental health.
Core Team
Senior Manager: Emma Patterson
Emma has a key leadership role in the creation, management and development of the network. Working closely with the CLRN Clinical Director and a multi-professional Executive Group, the Senior Manager provides expertise and input to support the CLRN’s strategic development and delivery. The role requires an understanding of and senior level expertise in research management and governance and provision of infrastructure support. Under the overall direction of the Clinical Director, the Senior Manager is responsible for the development and management of a multi-professional team of staff working across the CLRN and for ensuring strong and effective working links between the organisations within the CLRN. The Senior Manager also acts as a primary link with other CLRNs, national Coordinating Centre staff, and relevant external organisations and groups.
As well as delivering on the strategy, the Senior Manager, is responsible for the delivery and management of the local portfolio, all research infrastructure and management, CLRN Personnel, finance and general management, communication and relationships and finally information, performance and quality assurance.
Lead RM&G Manager: Julie Norris
Julie has overall responsibility for the local implementation and delivery of national RM&G systems for NIHR Clinical Research Network portfolio studies on behalf of CLRN member organisations in the region. In addition, West Midlands (South) is a centralised network and Julie is responsible for establishing and maintaining a team of CLRN RM&G staff who ensure the effective delivery of all CLRN RM&G functions across the network. She is also involved in Pre-hospital care research and is driving forward the research agenda in West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Industry Manager: Emma Thompson
Emma is responsible for promoting, facilitating and supporting Portfolio adopted commercial research across the West Midlands (South) region. This involves circulating information on forthcoming studies, supporting sites to undertake feasibility reviews of new commercial studies going through the adoption process, providing support with study set up and liaising with the study team to identify issues and monitor recruitment. Emma provides a central point of contact for Industry, Trusts, the Investigator and the NIHR Industry Team.
Information Manager: Pat Ryan
Pat designs, implements and maintains systems for collecting, analysing and reporting key information for the CLRN. This includes activity and recruitment data collected by research teams, which is fed through the NIHR Coordinating Centre in Leeds as well as locally-generated data, such as recruitment by our CLRN Nurse and Midwife team and financial information relating to study costs. He provides a reporting function within the CLRN, to member organisations and to several other research networks locally. He is the site owner and administrator of the CLRN's SharePoint portal and promotes it as an effective tool for collaborative working across the Network area, also acting as the first point of contact for issues relating to the portal and indeed the wider IT context.
PA to the Senior Manager & Clinical Director: Nicky Mortimer
Nicky provides administrative support predominately for both Emma Patterson and the Clinical Director, however she also supports the whole team when needed. She is the first point of contact for all general CLRN queries and is involved with the day to day running of diaries and appointments, arranging meetings, liaising with contacts in other NHS organisations and Board members.
The Core team is supported by a Research Management and Governance (RM&G) team, and a Centralised Nursing, Midwifery and AHP (CNMA) team.
Find out more information about the WM(S) CLRN Research Management & Governance Team. Find out more information about the WM(S) CLRN Centralised Nursing, Midwifery and AHP Team.
The CLRN team contact details can be found on the Contact Us page.
