Health and Care Research Wales sets out ambitions in new three-year plan

Health and Care Research Wales is launching an ambitious and wide-reaching three-year plan to continue building on the momentum seen in the Welsh research community in recent years.

The new plan, Research matters: our plan for improving health and care research in Wales 2022 - 2025, will be delivered in collaboration with partners including R&D leaders in health boards and the wider NHS, social care, higher education institutions, industry and funders to drive improvements in health and social care research, support routes into research careers and to fund and organise research.

The plan sets out four key aims:

Setting the agenda for health and social care research.

By developing research strategies, including strengthening adult social care leadership, delivering on the recently published coordinated cancer research strategy for Wales and the rare diseases action plan and ensuring meaningful Welsh contribution to the UK government’s genomics strategy, Health and Care Research Wales commits to promoting research as a driver of innovation and improvement.

Funding and organising research.   

The plan details a commitment to continuing to work with research funding agencies both in Wales and the wider UK to fund health and social care research. The organisation will not only run its own research funding schemes, it will also continue to make funding contributions to organisations like the NIHR, participate as a member of the Ensuring Value in Research international funders forum and provide and performance manage infrastructure funding for research centres and units.

Building capacity and capability in health and social care research. 

The Health and Care Research Wales Faculty has been established as a core pillar of a national research career pathway, providing support, guidance and training for researchers at all stages and across all professions. The plan also announces funding for a new adult social care research centre, to help bring adult social care research in Wales in line with the successes seen in children’s social care research through CASCADE. Building on the existing strengths of the Health and Care Research Wales-funded SAIL Databank, the plan sets out intentions to continue to work with partners and facilitate an effective partnership with the new NHS Wales National Data Resource programme to improve access to health and care data for research purposes.

Using research to improve health and social care. 

Drawing on the success of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, Health and Care Research Wales will establish a new Evidence Centre that builds on and mainstreams those achievements to address key priority issues in health, public health and social care.

Health and Care Research Wales will continue to raise the profile of research in Wales by showcasing the impacts of research, building and strengthening partnerships across sectors and continuing to integrate meaningful public involvement and participation with equality, diversity and inclusion in mind.

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

In short, research matters. Over the past few years, the crucial role research and research professionals play in keeping people healthy and well has become more visible. In delivering this plan, we will continue to build relationships and collaborate with colleagues in Welsh Government, the NHS and in social care to develop effective and deliverable strategies for research, maximise the use of research funding and support and encourage research careers — all with a view to improving health and wellbeing for communities in Wales.”