The Veterans & Families Research Hub (VFR Hub) was initiated by the Forces in Mind Trust, Lord Ashcroft and Anglia Ruskin University to:
“Provide an accessible, contemporary and authoritative repository of UK and international research-related resources and literature on military veterans and their families, including transitions to civilian lives, that informs and stimulates research, policy development, improved service delivery and journalistic enquiry.”
The Hub has been developed to enable a broad range of international users to share in the creation, discovery and understanding of evidence-based information about the military veteran family. It is designed for those involved in research and its outputs to create, communicate and collaborate more efficiently. It will support statutory and charity organisations to create better targeted and more efficient policies and services, and will assist in developing a better understanding of veterans’ matters across communities.
The Veterans & Families Research Hub is built to serve the needs of the broadest range of users, including academics and researchers, policy makers, statutory and voluntary service providers, the media and the public, including the military and veteran community. Depending on individual interests the Hub will enable users to:
- Search for research and evidence by subject area
- Interrogate a database of relevant literature
- Identify researchers and institutions with common interests
- Work as a community of interest to generate and share ideas and innovations
- Raise questions and engage in discussions
- Identify research gaps to facilitate funding and collaborative opportunities
The Hub harnesses academic research to facilitate knowledge exchange at a level and in a medium appropriate to the user and will help to bridge the gap of understanding and collaboration across communities.