M-RIC Review of 2024 Welcome
Together, as M-RIC, we are bringing research to life
When the University of Liverpool and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust joined forces to establish M-RIC in 2023, we set out with the bold ambition of creating a new comprehensive programme of research for innovation to meet our population’s complex and growing needs, while plugging gaps in UK mental health science and engineering.
In this review, you will read about how we are realising this ambition. In 2024, we built a research portfolio spanning molecular studies for medicines repurposing to public health studies for building community mental health. Across our six work areas, we are making remarkable progress as one centre where research teams from different studies and disciplines synergise.
We have recruited some exceptional scientists and engineers, attracted to making a real difference to people’s lives through M-RIC’s closeness to scientifically robust innovation as core business for the NHS.
Equally important has been the integration of service users and carers into our research teams. Their lived experiences provide invaluable insights, helping to shape our research in ways that ensure it is meaningful and impactful for patients and service users. It has been inspiring to see our service user and carer representatives flourish in this collaborative environment, further reinforcing our commitment to co-produced research.
As we look ahead to 2025, our teams are very well placed to deliver great research from M-RIC and implement it without delay through Mersey Care, for and with our service users, carers and wider communities. We are also well placed to have national, collaborative impact through our integration with other groups across the UK Mental Health Mission andNIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC).
I want to thank the M-RIC team, our service users and carers and partner organisations for their dedication and delivery of great progress throughout 2024. Together, as M-RIC, we are bringing research to life for everyone’s mental health.
Professor Iain Buchan
M-RIC Co-Director
Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Liverpool
Central to our vision is service users and carers, our “experts by experience”, whose perspectives inform our work
2024 has been a busy year for M-RIC! We know our region faces challenges in terms of deprivation and an increasing need for mental health support from people in our local communities. However, M-RIC is bringing world-class research to Liverpool and our surrounding boroughs. Supported by the necessary funding and resources, it is helping us to better understand how we can deliver improved care and treatments.
Central to our vision is service users and carers, our “experts by experience”, whose perspectives inform our work. Their involvement has been transformative, not only as core members of our M-RIC research teams but also through their contributions as public advisors in workshops, meetings, and events. Their voices ensure that our approach remains impactful and rooted in the needs of our local communities.
To achieve our objectives as a leading research centre, we need more patients and service users involved in trials and other research activities. This is also essential for Mersey Care to fulfil one of its super six strategic intentions – to lead world-class research and innovation in mental health and wellbeing.
Historically, recruitment has been challenging, often relying on busy clinicians. Inspired by the innovative practices of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, we are rolling out Count Me In —a groundbreaking system that proactively connects Mersey Care patients and service users with research opportunities relevant to them, unless they choose to opt out.
Count Me In allows researchers to directly contact participants through a secure process, reducing the burden on clinicians. Developed through the dedicated efforts of our team, the opt-out system is now live and we look forward to recruiting participants to our first research activity through the Count Me In system soon.
It’s also been rewarding to see our Mersey Care staff benefit from M-RIC. More staff are becoming researchers themselves with some even becoming research participants. For example, in the review, you will read about how over 100 Mersey Care staff members recently participated in a trial to enhance mental health and wellbeing using a digital app, as part of the Mental Health Avatar work package.
Overall, it has been truly inspiring to see the collaborative efforts of the NHS, industry, and academia working together through M-RIC to reduce inequalities in mental health research. I want to thank everyone who has joined us on our journey so far and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together in 2025.
Professor Nusrat Husain
Co-Director of M-RIC
Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist
Lead for the Global Centre for Research on Mental Health Inequalities at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
M-RIC Review of 2024
Learn more about our progress and highlights over the past 12 months by visiting other sections in our 2024 Annual Review.