The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical,

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

social care Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

and

translational research Translational research (also called translation research, translational science, or, when the context is clear, simply translation) is research aimed at translating (converting) results in basic research into results that directly benefit humans ...

. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improve the health and wealth of the nation through research". 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 The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the s ...

. As a research funder and research partner of the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

and social care, the NIHR complements the work of the Medical Research Council. NIHR focuses on

(translating discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic),

clinical research Clinical research is a branch of medical research that involves people and aims to determine the effectiveness (efficacy) and safety of medications, devices, diagnostic products, and treatment regimens intended for improving human health. The ...

and applied health and social care research.

History

The NIHR (originally named National Institute for Health Research) was created in April 2006 under the government's health research strategy, Best Research for Best Health. This strategy outlined the direction that NIHR research and development should take. Its predecessor was the NHS Research & Development programme which was established in 1991. Factors influencing the creation of the NIHR were the growing importance of

evidence-based medicine Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available exte ...

in science and policymaking, the spread of New Public Management thinking and increased government funding. Its budget was over £1.2 billion in 2020–21. it was the largest national clinical research funder in Europe. In 2022 NIHR changed its name to National Institute for Health and Care Research in order to emphasise its role in social care research.

Notable discoveries and developments

* NIHR is among the world-leaders in COVID-19 research and recruited over a million people in their studies of the disease. In the

RECOVERY trial The Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY Trial) is a large-enrollment clinical trial of possible treatments for people in the United Kingdom admitted to hospital with severe COVID-19 infection. The trial was later expanded to ...

, NIHR researchers found that the inexpensive steroid

dexamethasone Dexamethasone is a fluorinated glucocorticoid medication used to treat rheumatic problems, a number of skin diseases, severe allergies, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), croup, brain swelling, eye pain following eye su ...

lowers the mortality rate among Covid patients receiving breathing support in hospitals. The PANORAMIC study, which examined the efficacy of

molnupiravir Molnupiravir, sold under the brand name Lagevrio, is an antiviral medication that inhibits the replication of certain RNA viruses. It is used to treat COVID19 in those infected by SARS-CoV-2. It is taken by mouth. Molnupiravir is a prodrug o ...

and Paxlovid, was awarded the

Prix Galien Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who ...

for its design and implementation. * NIHR was one of the developers of the ''UK Standards for Public Involvement'' which set the framework on how to involve the public in research. * Delivered a trial for

Haemophilia A Haemophilia A (or hemophilia A) is a blood clotting disorder caused by a genetic deficiency in clotting factor VIII, thereby resulting in significant susceptibility to bleeding, both internally and externally. This condition occurs almost exclu ...

which resulted in the first successful use of gene therapy for treating the condition. * Showed that using

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and rad ...

is better for detecting

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

than the more intrusive

biopsy A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, an interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiology, interventional cardiologist. The process involves the extraction of sampling (medicine), sample ...

. * Showed that

gefapixant Gefapixant, sold under the brand name Lyfnua, is a medication used to treat chronic (long-term) cough. It acts as an antagonist of the P2RX3 receptor. It was authorized for medical use in the European Union in September 2023. Medical uses ...

could be used to treat some types of cough, making it the first new cough medicine in 50 years. * Demonstrated that a blood test can be used to better diagnose

pre-eclampsia Pre-eclampsia is a multi-system disorder specific to pregnancy, characterized by the new onset of hypertension, high blood pressure and often a significant amount of proteinuria, protein in the urine or by the new onset of high blood pressure a ...

Research

Areas of focus

In June 2021 NIHR published Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter. 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. Their work-streams include funding research for the NHS,

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

and

global health Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems th ...

and

; investing in expertise and facilities; and involving patients and communities in research. Their current areas of strategic focus include learning from impact of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

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.

Research programmes

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. NIHR's funding programmes are: * Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation * Evidence Synthesis * Health and Social Care Delivery Research * Health Technology Assessment * Invention for Innovation * National Research Collaboration Programme * Policy Research Programme * Programme Development Grants * Programme Grants for Applied Research * Public Health Research * Research for Patient Benefit

Research schools

The NIHR has established three national research schools: the School for Primary Care Research,The SPCR internship programme broadens perspectives and increases diversity
''www.spcr.nihr.ac.uk'', accessed 10 March 2021 the School for Social Care Research, and the School for Public Health Research. Each national school is a research collaboration between academic centres in England. The three schools take part in developing evidence for use in practice and provide training and career development opportunities for researchers in their respective sectors.

Research units

NIHR funds a range of university-based collaborations that undertake research in priority areas:

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

and

organ donor Organ donation is the process when a person authorizes an organ of their own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive, through a legal authorization for deceased donation made prio ...

health, health protection, and health and social care policy. Each unit focuses on a priority topic, for example blood donation,

healthcare-associated infections A hospital-acquired infection, also known as a nosocomial infection (from the Greek , meaning "hospital"), is an infection that is acquired in a hospital or other healthcare facility. To emphasize both hospital and nonhospital settings, it is s ...

, and adult social care.

Global health research

Supporting the UK International Development Strategy and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, NIHR launched its Global Health portfolio in 2016. It funds applied health research that directly addresses the diverse health needs of people in

low- and middle-income countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreemen ...

(LMICs) using UK Aid from the UK government. As well as funding Global Health Research Units and Groups, partnerships between British universities and LMIC institutions, NIHR invests in training and development in global health research and strengthening the research capacity of LMICs at individual, institutional and system level. Engaging and involving local communities in the design and delivery of health research is also part of the programme. In accordance with NIHR's

open access policy An open-access mandate is a policy adopted by a research institution, research funder, or government which requires or recommends researchers—usually university faculty or research staff and/or research grant recipients—to make their publishe ...

, research created with such funding needs to be published in an open access journal. NIHR's global health spendings can be checked through the database of the

International Aid Transparency Initiative The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global campaign to create transparency in the records of how aid money is spent. The initiative hopes to thereby ensure that aid money reaches its intended recipients. The ultimate goal is ...

. Since 2020, NIHR's global health research units and groups have been involved in efforts to tackle the spread and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in LMICs.

Public partnerships

The NIHR offers several ways for patients and the public to participate in health and care research. People can take part in a study as a

research participant A research participant, also called a human subject or an experiment, trial, or study participant or subject, is a person who voluntarily participates in human subject research after giving informed consent to be the subject of the research. A rese ...

, for example in a clinical trial that looks for new treatments for a health condition. People who are not affected by a particular condition or who care for someone with a long-term health issue can also take part in research. The NIHR runs the online services ''Be Part of Research'' and ''Join Dementia Research'' to inform the public about what health and care research is and to help them find studies that are looking for participants. Patients and the public can also contribute to research through

patient and public involvement Public involvement (or public and patient involvement, PPI) in medical research refers to the practice where people with health conditions (patients), carers and members of the public work together with researchers and influence what is research ...

(PPI). PPI is a partnership between members of the public (including patients, service users, carers) and researchers where public representatives can influence what should be a priority for research and help shape how the research is carried out, applied and communicated. Members of the public can find involvement opportunities in NIHR's research through the database ''People in Research''. The website ''Learning for Involvement'' also offers information and resources for learning about public involvement and best practice case studies. The NIHR's global health research funding application process also requires applicants to meaningfully involve affected communities in their research, a practice known in the global health context as Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI).

Infrastructure

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. NIHR coordinates and supports clinical research through its Research Delivery Network (RDN). With 12 regional networks across England, the RDN provides help to patients, the public and health and care organisations to participate in research. 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. Since 2007, the NIHR also supports

translating Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

scientific developments into direct clinical treatments and applications through its twenty Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs). The BRCs operate as partnerships between local NHS organisations and academic institutions such as the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

or the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. The NIHR has also established Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs), dedicated spaces for delivering research and trials, at 28 NHS hospitals. The NIHR also funds three Patient Safety Translational Research Centres which focus on translating discoveries on

patient safety Patient safety is a specialized field about enhancing healthcare quality through the systematic prevention, reduction, reporting, and analysis of medical errors and preventable harm that contribute to severe outcomes for the patient. While health ...

into practice. 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. Based at NHS organisations, the NIHR Medtech and In vitro diagnostic Co-operatives (MICs) work with commercial companies on developing new

medical technologies Health technology is defined by the World Health Organization as the "application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures, and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of liv ...

and research

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning ''in glass'', or ''in the glass'') Research, studies are performed with Cell (biology), cells or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in ...

diagnostic tests. 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.

Career development and support

The NIHR Academy, launched in 2018, develops and coordinates the NIHR's academic training, career and research capacity development. Its launch was an output and recommendation of the strategic review of training 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. the Dean of the NIHR Academy is Professor Waljit Dhillo, 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 Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. 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. 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.

Key people and structure

Responsibility for the NIHR lies with the

Chief Scientific Advisor The UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) is the personal adviser on science and technology-related activities and policies to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. They are also the head of the Government Office for Science. Many indiv ...

to the

(DHSC). Professor Sally Davies (Dame Sally from 2009) held this post from 2004 to 2016, and led the founding of the NIHR in 2006. She was succeeded by Professor

Chris Whitty Sir Christopher John MacRae Whitty (born 21 April 1966) is a British epidemiologist, serving as Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government since 2019. Whitty was Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department ...

(who has also been

Chief Medical Officer for England In the United Kingdom, a chief medical officer (CMO) is the most senior government advisor on matter relating to health. There are four chief medical officers in the United Kingdom who are appointed to advise their respective governments: * His M ...

since 2019). Since August 2021, the current holder of the post is Lucy Chappell, Professor of Obstetrics at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. For operating the NIHR, the DHSC contracts with a number of

NHS Trusts An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

, universities and life science organisations that host NIHR's two coordinating centres: * NIHR Coordinating Centre (NIHRCC), hosted by

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is an NHS hospital trust in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The Trust was formed in April 1998 after the merger of two previous smaller NHS trusts to form one citywide organisation. The former trusts were Unite ...

, the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

, and LGC. * NIHR Research Delivery Network Coordinating Centre (RDNCC), hosted together by the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. The Dean of the NIHR Academy and the Research Programme Directors are also contracted by the DHSC.

Publications

The NIHR publishes five

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

journals which make up the NIHR Journals Library. The journals are titled Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation, Health and Social Care Delivery Research,

Health Technology Assessment Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that uses systematic and explicit methods to evaluate the properties and effects of a health technology. Health technology is conceived as any intervention (test, device, medici ...

, Public Health Research, and Programme Grants for Applied Research. Researchers working in relevant, NIHR-funded projects are required to publish in an NIHR journal. Besides publishing the final research articles, the NIHR Journals Library supports the model of

open science Open science is the movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, amateur or professional. Open science is transparent and accessib ...

by providing a transparent, 'living' document for each research project which is updated alongside the progress of the study. This involves publishing all relevant materials from the outset of the studies, including the relevant

systematic review A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on ...

s, research protocol, study documentation, plain English descriptions, and

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

. The NIHR publishes short, easy-to-read summaries and thematic overviews of the most important research findings on the ''NIHR Evidence'' website. Some of the summaries are also published in

The British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world' ...

. The NIHR also has an

platform where researchers can share any kind of relevant articles, documents and data including negative or

null result In science, a null result is a result without the expected content: that is, the proposed result is absent. It is an experimental outcome which does not show an otherwise expected effect. This does not imply a result of zero or nothing, simply a res ...

Open access

NIHR has an

policy and was one of the original funders of

Europe PubMed Central Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) is an open-access repository that contains millions of biomedical research works. It was known as UK PubMed Central until 1 November 2012. Service Europe PMC provides free access to more than 9.3 million full-te ...

. Their updated policy requires all NIHR-funded, peer-reviewed research articles submitted after June 2022 have to be immediately, freely and openly accessible to all. The articles are required to use the

Creative Commons attribution A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...

(CC BY) or the

Open Government Licence The Open Government Licence (OGL) is a Public copyright license, copyright licence for crown copyright works published by the UK government. Other UK public sector bodies may apply it to their publications. It was developed and is maintained by T ...

(OGL).

Achievements and recognition

* In 2016, NIHR commissioned the independent

RAND Europe The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

think tank and the Policy Institute at

to collate and synthesise 100 examples of positive change arising from NIHR's support of health and care research in its first 10 years. The assessment found that the NIHR had "transformed

research & development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage of d ...

in and for the

and the patients it serves". * In 2017, the NIHR was awarded one of the first 'Cochrane-REWARD prizes for reducing waste in research' for the Adding Value in Research Programme * In 2018, an article published in Public Health identified that NHS trusts with increased NIHR-adopted clinical trial activity are associated with reduced mortality levels. * In 2022, a study looking at clinical trial transparency among European medical research funders ranked NIHR the highest for being the most compliant in implementing best practices. * In September 2022, NIHR Cambridge BRC announced what is believed to be UK's first demonstration of genomic data federation by connecting the trusted research environments of NIHR Cambridge BRC with

Genomics England Genomics England is a company wholly owned by the United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care. Established in 2013, it was tasked with delivering the 100,000 Genomes Project, a pioneering initiative that sequenced 100,000 genomes fro ...

as part of a UK Research & Innovation-funded project involving

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, NIHR Cambridge BRC,

, Lifebit, Eastern Academic Health Science Network, and

Cambridge University Health Partners Cambridge University Health Partners is an academic health science centre that brings together the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Cambridgeshire and ...

References

External links

*
NIHR Evidence
— plain-language summaries of the most important findings of NIHR-funded research
NIHR Journals Library
— NIHR's six open access journals publishing its funded research {{Authority control Government research Health policy in the United Kingdom National Institute for Health and Care Research Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom Science and technology think tanks based in the United Kingdom Medical and health organisations based in England Funding bodies of England Research organisations in England 2006 establishments in England