Autism@Manchester

Bringing together academics, clinicians and members of the autistic community.

How do you support researchers in Manchester?

Autism@Manchester was founded in 2014 and seeks to create an environment that encourages communication and collaboration between researchers and the autism community. As autism affects so many different aspects of life, this approach is particularly important because researchers need to work both across disciplines and with the autistic community to produce effective research with real meaning and impact for autistic people.

Our key aims are to bring academics, clinicians and other practitioners together with members of the autistic community to:

• Share knowledge and understanding around autism research. • Collaborate on the selection, design and conduct of research.

To achieve these aims, we have developed several initiatives that support autism researchers by:

• Ensuring research addresses community priorities.

• Improving research design and feasibility.

• Strengthening grant impact cases.

• Forming collaborations with researchers and the autistic community.

• Increasing opportunities for supervision of Masters and PhD students.

• Increasing Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) skills.

• Improving science communication skills.

• Facilitating wide dissemination and publicity of research.

• Hosting seminars or events to showcase research.

• Increasing study sample sizes.

• Identifying translational opportunities.

• Increasing awareness of autism research outside your usual field.

• Access to resources.

At what stage in their research project should a researcher approach you for support?

We support researchers at all stages. However, benefit is maximal when researchers link in with Autism@Manchester from the start of their project (i.e. idea generation) and continue throughout the study and beyond.

Policy@Manchester

An academic health science and innovation system at the forefront of transforming the health and wellbeing of Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million citizens.

How do you support researchers in Manchester?

Policy@Manchester can identify audiences in the local, regional, and national policy world who may be interested in, or able to make good use of, your evidence. We facilitate correspondence and introductions between researchers and policymakers, and proactively search for opportunities for our researchers to make contributions to government, parliament, and wider policy debates.

At what stage in their research project should a researcher approach you for support?

At any point, but the earlier, the better! We can advise on potential policy impacts from the planning phases onwards, and can arrange for promotions and events that tie-in to final outputs. We can also be included in ‘Pathways To Impact’ sections of grant applications for future projects as a tailored policy support service that comes at no extra cost to funders.