The Veterans and Families Research Hub (VFR Hub) is an interactive web portal and search engine for publicly-available research materials, representing a broad cross-section of themes and topics relevant to the international veteran community. This online repository and filter enables a wide variety of stakeholders, including academics and researchers, policy makers, statutory and voluntary service providers, the media and the public, as well as the military and veteran community, to share in the submission, creation, discovery and understanding of evidence-based information about the military veteran family, and to communicate and collaborate more effectively. As such, it assists in developing a better understanding of veterans’ matters, and helps to create better targeted and more efficient policies and services across communities.
According to its founders, the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT), Lord Ashcroft and Anglia Ruskin University, the VFR Hub is intended 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, which informs and stimulates research, policy development, improved service delivery and journalistic enquiry.”
Depending on individual interests the Hub enables 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 is organized into Themes, Sub Themes, and Topics, as shown here:
The VFR Hub can be found at: https://www.vfrhub.com