A new London-wide applied research collaboration has been announced with £22 million of government funding to bring together 20 partner organisations across the capital in health and social care research. The NIHR London Applied Research Collaboration, known as ARC London, will be hosted by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, with leadership based at King’s College London, University College London and Imperial College London.
The award is part of a wider five-year NIHR investment of £170 million supporting 11 Applied Research Collaborations across the country. The London collaboration is intended to strengthen applied research infrastructure and support the use of evidence in health and social-care practice. It is not an announcement of a new front-line service being delivered immediately, nor does it by itself establish specific future savings, reductions in admissions or health outcomes.
A London partnership spanning 20 organisations
ARC London brings together NHS trusts, universities and other expertise from across the capital to work on applied research priorities in health and social care. The collaboration is designed to generate high-quality evidence and support its translation into practice, with partners spanning 20 organisations.
The leadership includes Professor Laura Shallcross as Director, Professor Ingrid Wolfe as Co-Director and Dr Ana Luisa Neves as Deputy Director. The wider leadership team is based across King’s College London, University College London and Imperial College London, while Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust hosts the collaboration, reflecting the cross-city structure of the collaboration.
The partnership is expected to work with patients, communities and people working across health, public health and social-care systems. That engagement is intended to help shape priorities and make the research more relevant to the needs of services and London’s diverse population.
Four themes for applied research
The collaboration will focus on four research themes. The first is neighbourhood health and social care, covering research related to independent living, people with multiple health and care needs, and care across different stages of life. The second is prevention and early intervention for major conditions, including cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease, as well as mental ill health.
A third theme will examine productivity and economic growth, with a focus on evidence that can support high-quality health and care services at an affordable cost. The fourth theme is data sciences for healthcare, including the use of data-led approaches to understand health and care needs earlier and inform prevention and care.
Across these themes, ARC London is intended to embed inclusive approaches in its projects and programmes. The stated aim is for findings to be relevant to a broad population and for any resulting interventions to be capable of being delivered to people who need them. The collaboration will also address issues affecting people living with a high burden of disease in London and beyond.
Translating evidence into practice
The purpose of the ARC model is to connect applied research with practice. ARC London is expected to support the translation of research evidence into practical use by health and social-care systems, while working with organisations across the capital to develop and share learning.
The collaboration also plans to work with other NIHR Applied Research Collaborations, NIHR infrastructure in London and life sciences partners. Those links are intended to support work on medicines, technologies and models of care, while keeping the emphasis on evidence, implementation and applied research rather than on immediate service delivery.
The four themes give the collaboration a framework for addressing major health and social-care questions, from earlier identification of need to support for people with long-term and complex conditions. Its role is to produce and apply evidence that can inform decisions by services, policymakers and practitioners.
Part of a national ARC network
ARC London joins a national network of 11 NIHR Applied Research Collaborations. The network is intended to share expertise and learning, supporting research and implementation at scale. That structure allows work developed in one region to contribute to wider understanding, while also enabling local partnerships to draw on evidence and experience from elsewhere.
The new award represents a major public investment in applied health and social-care research in London. With the host trust, partner structure, leadership and research themes announced, ARC London will operate as part of the national NIHR ARC programme and focus on producing evidence that can support improvements in health and care practice over the five-year investment period.
