Our Universities play a key part of new £9 million research fund to tackle the region’s biggest health care challenges.
- Yorkshire and Humber region will receive £9 million over five years through government funded investment in health research to equip NHS for the future
- The funding will tackle the biggest challenges the health and care system faces over the next five years including urgent care, healthy childhood, frailty in older people and reduced life expectancy for people with mental health conditions
- Our academics will be leading on research themes across urgent and emergency care, mental and physical multimorbidity and health economics, evaluation, effectiveness and equality
Health Minister Nicola Blackwood has announced on 12 July 2019 a multi-million pound funding for research that could transform the lives of millions of people living with a range of conditions, including dementia, mental ill health and obesity.
Fifteen partnerships or Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) – including one for the Yorkshire and Humber region – have been set up across England, made up of NHS organisations, social care services, leading academics, innovators, and local authorities who will work together to address a specific health or care issue in their region.
A £9 million fund will enable the Yorkshire and Humber ARC, hosted by the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR), part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and its partner organisations – including the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York – to prioritise research into a number of health issues including older people with frailty, healthy childhood, urgent care and mental ill health.
The funding has been awarded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) for ground-breaking new projects that will address the increasing demands on the NHS and give patients greater independence and choice about how they manage their healthcare.
Deputy Director of the Yorkshire and Humber ARC is Professor of Emergency Medicine, Suzanne Mason, from the University of Sheffield’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR). She said:
“The award of this NIHR funding for the Yorkshire and Humber ARC will encourage strong research collaborations across Yorkshire and the Humber. Working together with the Universities of Bradford, Leeds and York, the NHS, social care, third sector and industry across the region, the funding will allow us to apply health research projects to transform health services, improve people’s health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities through strategically important research themes.
Director of Yorkshire and Humber ARC, Professor John Wright, of BIHR said: “We are delighted that the Yorkshire and Humber region has been awarded this important programme of applied research. Medical research can often seem remote from everyday life.
“Our ARC will support people-powered research that aims to improve the health and well-being for our communities. Our themes of healthy childhood, mental health, older people and urgent care are the priorities that have been identified by our NHS partners and the public and will ensure our patients benefit from cutting-edge innovation.”
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.”
