In this blog post Francesca Morland, Health and Wellbeing Research Partnerships Coordinator at VONNE, reflects on the first few months in her role and the priorities for the programme of work ahead.
Having taken up the role as Health and Wellbeing Research Partnerships Coordinator in April 2025, it’s been an incredibly busy few months! Before joining VONNE, I worked in VCSE infrastructure at a local level, supporting a large number of organisations across Newcastle and Gateshead. Because of this, I am passionate about highlighting the value of the sector, particularly when it comes to its contribution to better and fairer health outcomes. The VCSE Research Partnerships support programme at VONNE, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), is very well aligned to this as it provides a single point of contact for researchers and VCSE organisations who are interested in collaborating on health and care-focussed research.
A lot of my time so far has been spent laying the groundwork by building up connections with people working in the VCSE and research sectors across the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) region. Alongside this, I have been responding to enquiries from both sectors around potential research collaborations, partnerships and opportunities. If you would like to get in touch via our enquiry forms, you can do so here.
We have had time to reflect on all of the work that has taken place since the role began in 2022, with support and direction from the steering and working groups. This has led to the development of a 2-year workplan which outlines the activities we plan to deliver and what we hope to achieve. It is vitally important that we ensure this work aligns with what VCSE organisations need to form successful and mutually beneficial research partnerships, and that you have the opportunity to contribute, inform and help shape this work as it develops.
We invite any VCSE organisation operating in the region to join us for a short online session on the 9th September, where I will present the workplan and create space for discussion and questions. Any level of experience or interest in health and care-focussed research is welcome! Your ideas and feedback will be collated and fed back to stakeholders with the aim of embedding this in the plan moving forward. If you would like to attend, you register at our booking link here.
I am really excited to be growing this support and keeping everyone updated with the work, and always very keen to hear from anyone who may be interested in connecting about research. You can contact me through our enquiry forms, directly via email: Francesca.morland@vonne.org.uk, or call 0191 233 2000 and I will get back to you.