The government has announced £135m for an NHS partnership with universities, innovators and local authorities, in a bid to solve some of the biggest issues facing health and social care over the next five years, including dementia, obesity and mental health.
The move is part of the NHS Long Term Plan announced earlier this year by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock.
A total of fifteen partnerships across the UK, made up of NHS organisations, social care services, leading academics, innovators, and local authorities, have received funding through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said: “As the population grows and demand on the NHS increases, it is paramount we develop the next generation of technologies and improve the way we work to ensure the NHS continues to offer world-leading care.
“The UK has a proud history of cutting-edge health research and by supporting the great minds in health and social care, this funding has the potential to unlock solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing healthcare and revolutionise the way patients access treatments in the future.”
Previous NIHR projects include:
• An online tool to help people manage their long-term conditions from the comfort of their own home, saving the NHS £175 per patient
• The introduction of life-saving blood clotting treatment - Tranexamic Acid (TXA) - across all ambulance services in England to reduce bleeding in trauma patients.
• A home-based rehabilitation programme for people with heart failure that has been shown to significantly improve quality of life, lead to better health outcomes for patients and is cost-effective to deliver in the NHS.
Prof Chris Whitty, chief scientific adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care, said: "The unique local collective approach at each NIHR Applied Research Collaboration will support applied health and care research that responds to, and meets, the needs of local patients, and local health and care systems. The network will also be able to tackle health priorities at a national level.
“The 15 new NIHR Applied Research Collaborations will ensure that we grow applied health and care research in every region in England. The additional funding announced today means we will ensure that our world-leading research is turned into real benefits for patients to ensure the Applied Research Collaborations work together to have national-level impact.”