UCLH and UCL are major partners in a successful bid for £9m for applied health research in the NHS.
New funding was received from the NIHR to set up a CLAHRC – ‘Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care’ initiative – to research innovative treatments and speed uptake of new techniques to benefit patients across a local population of six million people.
CLAHRCs are collaborative partnerships between a university and the surrounding NHS organisations, focused on improving patient outcomes through the conduct and application of applied health research. They draw on existing academic and clinical collaborations, and the depth of expertise of its partners, to deliver improvements in five different themes: innovations in systems and models of healthcare, methodological innovation, optimising behaviour and engagement with care, empowering mental health service users and families and child and adolescent health.
UCLH and UCL are part of the CLAHRC London: City North and East, an academic and clinical collaboration covering north central and north east London, south and west Hertfordshire, south Bedfordshire and south west and mid Essex.
A collaboration of 51 NHS trusts, higher education institutions, clinical commissioning groups, the Greater London Authority, local authorities, industry and the voluntary and community sector groups have also agreed a further £34 million in matched funding to improve health outcomes and the quality of care.
Research teams will collaborate across the themes to tackle a wide range of health issues from multiple angles. For example, improving the management of mental and physical health problems in young people; and undertaking a school-based asthma evaluation and delivering a targeted intervention to children with poor asthma control.
This investment from the NIHR will help ensure patients benefit from new treatments and techniques that could revolutionise future healthcare. It is hoped the financial boost will stimulate the research economy and attract more research funding in the future.
Professor Rosalind Raine, UCLPartners Programme Director for Population Health, who led CLAHRC London: City North and East’s bid for funding, said: “We are delighted to be part of this ambitious national initiative. We have brought together Europe's largest concentration of leading applied health researchers to deliver world-class research that will achieve improvements in services and reductions in health and care inequalities.”
Speaking of the Government’s commitment to the CLAHRC programme Health Minister, Lord Howe, who announced the significant investment from the NIHR, said: “This is great news for patients – this funding could potentially help the development of ground breaking treatments which could revolutionise care. With a growing elderly population, the need for innovative and effective solutions has never been more important.
“We want the UK to lead the world in terms of health research and this announcement underlines that commitment. It is vital that we invest in health research, not only to create the opportunities for health research to grow - but also to help our economy thrive so we can compete in the global race.”
