What is GAPRUKI?
GAPRUKI (General and Adolescent Paediatric Research Collaborative in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a research network which aims to improve health outcomes for children by informing evidence-based care for acute and chronic childhood conditions through multi-centre collaborative research.
What are our goals?
We want to strengthen research in general and community paediatrics in the UK and the Republic of Ireland by:
- Identifying research priorities which target gaps in evidence-based care, and advocating for funding to develop and support studies which address these priorities.
- Facilitating research collaboration by linking paediatricians and other healthcare professionals interested in research within the UK and Ireland and internationally.
- Ensuring frontline paediatricians, other healthcare workers, and children and their families have a voice in the design of general and community paediatric research studies.
- Developing research training opportunities for general and community paediatric trainees and allied health professionals.
- Working constructively with other research networks such as PERUKI (Paediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland) and the NIHR Clinical Research Network and with other stakeholders including RCPCH and BAGP.
What have we done so far?
GAPRUKI was established in 2016. We undertook a formal consensus-based research prioritisation exercise in 2018-19 which identified key research priorities including the management of acute respiratory illness, diagnostic approaches in febrile illness and urinary tract infection, and the outpatient management of constipation and gastro-oesophageal reflux. We have used this work to advocate for research funding and helped develop studies to address these evidence-gaps. Key achievements include:
- Helping develop the design and support the roll-out of the BACHb study, a multicentre randomised clinical trial of respiratory support in infants with acute bronchiolitis
- Successfully advocating for Health Technology Assessment funding of research in the management of acute severe asthma, gastro-oesophageal reflux and UTI sampling and submitting applications for research studies in both these calls.
What will we do next?
We want to build our membership so that every paediatric unit in the UK has at least one person linked to our network, to ensure all children across the UK have equal opportunities to be included in research and to ensure we hear diverse voices to inform our research practice.
Join us!
GAPRUKI needs you!
Whether you are already research-active, would like to become more involved in research, or simply want to stay informed about new studies, we encourage you to join us by completing the membership form.
We are open to everyone including general and community paediatricians, trainees, students, nurses and allied health professionals. Members will be invited to our monthly online meeting and kept informed of new studies, conferences and research training opportunties.
We also plan to establish a patient and parent forum. If you are a child or young person, or family member of a child or young person, with experience of being in hospital or having a long-term health problem, and would like to register your interest please email gaprukirsc@gmail.com.