National Institute for Health and Care Research
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research.[3] With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21,[4] its mission is to "improve the health and wealth of the nation through research".[5] The NIHR was established in 2006 under the government's Best Research for Best Health strategy, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. As a research funder and research partner of the NHS, public health and social care, the NIHR complements the work of the Medical Research Council.[5] NIHR focuses on translational research (translating discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic), clinical research and applied health and social care research.[5][6]
Established
April 2006[1]
funding, enabling and delivering health and social care research
Research[edit]
Areas of focus[edit]
In June 2021 NIHR published Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter.[5] The document, building on the 2006 Best Research for Best Health strategy, outlined the updated operational principles, core work-streams and areas of strategic focus of the NIHR.[23] Their work-streams include funding research for the NHS, public and global health and social care; investing in expertise and facilities; and involving patients and communities in research.[5] Their current areas of strategic focus include learning from impact of COVID-19 on research and healthcare; researching for patients with multiple long-term conditions, involving under-served communities and regions in research; and improving equality, diversity and inclusion across the Institution.[5][24]
Research programmes[edit]
The NIHR's funding programmes offer a focused source of funding for researchers within the health and care system in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also participate in some of these programmes. The programmes give researchers access to funding to undertake clinical and applied health and social care research.[25]
NIHR's funding programmes are:
Infrastructure[edit]
NIHR funds research infrastructure that provides expertise, specialist facilities, a delivery workforce and support services. This infrastructure supports and delivers research funded by government bodies, medical research charities, the life sciences industry and other relevant industries.[49]
NIHR coordinates and supports clinical research through its Clinical Research Network (CRN).[50] With 15 local networks scattered across England, the CRN provides help to patients, the public and health and care organisations to participate in research.[51] In 2021-22, the network recruited more than a million participants to clinical research studies, most of whom were taking part in research to help discover new treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.[52]
Since 2007, the NIHR also supports translating scientific developments into direct clinical treatments and applications through its twenty Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs).[53][54] The BRCs operate as partnerships between local NHS organisations and academic institutions such as the University of Oxford or the University College London.[55][56] The NIHR has also established Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs), dedicated spaces for delivering research and trials, at 28 NHS hospitals.[57][58]
The NIHR also funds three Patient Safety Translational Research Centres which focus on translating discoveries on patient safety into practice.[59]
Researching specific regional health and care issues, the NIHR has a network of 15 Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs). The ARCs are made up of partnerships between universities, NHS providers, local authorities and other organisations.[60] Based at NHS organisations, the NIHR Medtech and In vitro diagnostic Co-operatives (MICs) work with commercial companies on developing new medical technologies and research in vitro diagnostic tests.[61]
Established by its Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure in 2011, the NIHR has eight Translational Research Collaborations – ready-formed networks of the UK's leading universities, NHS trusts and research centres that conduct early-phase translational research and tackle experimental medicine challenges in selected therapeutic themes.[62][63]
Career development and support[edit]
The NIHR Academy, launched in 2018,[64] develops and coordinates the NIHR's academic training, career and research capacity development.[65] Its launch was an output and recommendation of the strategic review of training[66] which looked at the future training and support needs of researchers.
The NIHR Academy provides training and career development awards from pre-doctoral level to research professorships.[67] As of 2021 the Dean of the NIHR Academy is Professor Waljit Dhillo,[68] Professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Consultant Endocrinologist. He also holds the position of Head of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism at Imperial College London.
The award of NIHR Senior Investigator is given to recognise "the most prominent and prestigious researchers funded by the NIHR and the most outstanding leaders of patient and people-based research within the NIHR research community", and held for four years with the possibility of a second term and then alumnus status.[69] The NIHR's flagship award is the Research Professorship which funds the clinical and applied health research of outstanding academics for 5-years. Similarly, the Global Health Research Professorship funds research that benefits low and middle income countries.[70]
Responsibility for the NIHR lies with the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Professor Sally Davies (Dame Sally from 2009) held this post from 2004 to 2016, and led the founding of the NIHR in 2006.[71][72] She was succeeded by Professor Chris Whitty (who has also been Chief Medical Officer for England since 2019).[73]
Since August 2021, the current holder of the post is Lucy Chappell,[2] Professor of Obstetrics at King's College London.[74]
For operating the NIHR, the DHSC contracts with a number of NHS Trusts, universities and life science organisations that host NIHR's two coordinating centres:[75]
The Dean of the NIHR Academy and the Research Programme Directors are also contracted by the DHSC.[75]
