The UK Government has announced a £50m research boost in a bid to tackle health inequalities in local areas and improve health outcomes across the country.
The investment, overseen by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will enable 13 local authorities across the UK – from Aberdeen to Plymouth – to set up pioneering Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) between experts and academics to address knowledge gaps in local areas.
This will allow for high-quality research into the local challenges affecting people’s health such as facilitating research to better understand and introduce interventions to help with childhood obesity, COVID-19 recovery, mental well-being and drug use.
“The pandemic shone a light on the stark health inequalities that exist across the country… Everyone should be able to live long, healthy lives regardless of their background and where they live, and this new research will help us deliver on our ambition,” said Minister of State for Health, Robert Jenrick.
The announcement marks the first time funding for research into health disparities has been given to local authorities for them to take charge on new projects within their communities and is part of the Government’s ‘Plan for Patients’, which aims to ease pressures on health and care services in local communities and enable better access to care.
It is also hoped that the funding will help stimulate economic growth across the country by creating new jobs within research and identifying local solutions to address some of the ‘key challenges facing society’.
Professor Brian Ferguson, director of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme, said: “Many people living in communities across the country are facing major challenges that are impacting on their health. Our newly launched HDRCs will serve as nationally recognised centres of excellence, boosting local government’s ability to tackle these challenges by enabling breathing space to become more research active.
“This is a hugely important step forward in one of NIHR’s key aims to help local government develop research that improves health and well-being. By focusing on the wider determinants of health such as employment, housing, education and the physical environment, the areas we are supporting have a tremendous opportunity to make a lasting impact on health inequalities and wider deprivation.”