Director of Health and Care Research Wales welcomes expanded NIHR funding agreement to boost cross-UK research

23 July

Health and social care researchers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will have increased access to research funding via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) from this autumn, it has been announced.

The Director of Health and Care Research Wales, Professor Kieran Walshe, said he was ‘delighted’ with the expansion of the current agreement and access to a greater range of NIHR funding programmes, following consultation with Health and Care Research Wales, the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office and Social Care Research & Development in Northern Ireland.

The announcement expands the list of NIHR research programmes that are available to researchers in the three countries, and increases access to research for people in these devolved administrations (DAs).

The new funding arrangements will facilitate more cross-UK research, also increase opportunities for researchers in the three devolved nations to collaborate with industry, including pharmaceutical companies and the medical technology industry. The shift in funding eligibility recognises the fact that health and social care research is typically conducted across all four UK nations and is more powerful and efficient as a result.

Professor Kieran Walshe, Director of Health and Care Research Wales, said:

We are delighted with the expansion of our current agreement and the access to a greater range of NIHR funding programmes that this will bring. The new partnership arrangements will increase opportunities for researchers in Wales to both lead and participate in studies of UK significance, while strengthening health and care research in the UK across the four nations.”

Since 2008, the NIHR - through Department of Health and Social Care - has had an arrangement with the DAs based on investments from each nation that has allowed research hosts (including universities and research active NHS organisations) in the three nations to apply for NIHR funding from four research programmes (Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR), Public Health Research (PHR), and Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME)), that would otherwise only be open to English research hosts.

Researchers, and in some cases Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be able to access five further NIHR research programmes from autumn 2023:

Minister of State for Health Will Quince said:

We’re making sure the best scientists across the UK are supported with the resources and research funding they need to continue making incredible scientific breakthroughs that save lives and enable the NHS to provide the best possible care.

Professor Danny McAuley, Scientific Director for Research Programmes at NIHR and based at Queen’s University Belfast, said:

This update to our funding processes recognises the fact that the best research happens across borders through collaboration and diversity.”