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The NIHR funds local collaborations to support applied health research and research on implementation of health and care evidence into day-to-day practice.
The NIHR invests significantly in people, centres of excellence, collaborations, services and facilities to support health and care research in England. Collectively these form the NIHR infrastructure.
Our infrastructure funding provides a platform to enable research in England, acting as a targeted and strategic investment to create an environment where early-phase, clinical and applied research can thrive.
Our research infrastructure facilitates the translation of discoveries into improved treatments and services for the benefit of patients and the NHS.
NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) support applied health and care research that responds to, and meets, the needs of local populations and local health and care systems.
These 15 local partnerships between NHS providers, universities, charities, local authorities, Academic Health Science Networks and other organisations also undertake implementation research to increase the rate at which research findings are implemented into practice.
The ARCs, announced in July 2019, aim to improve outcomes for patients and the public; improve the quality, delivery and efficiency of health and care services; and increase the sustainability of the health and care system both locally and nationally.
The ARCs undertake research on a number of areas of need highlighted by the NIHR Futures of Health report, including: the challenges of an ageing society; multimorbidity; and the increasing demands placed on our health and care system.
The £135 million five-year funding also aims to deliver national-level impact through significant collaboration between the ARCs, with individual ARCs providing national leadership within their fields of expertise.
The 15 ARCs are:
Each NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) undertakes research in a number of areas of need, such as dementia, long-term conditions and public health.
The ARCs also work together on a number of national leadership areas, led by specific ARCs.
These collaborations of ARCs drive progress in applied health research and implementation science in areas of national priority for the health and care system, to bring benefits to patients faster.
| Leadership area | Lead ARC |
| Ageing and dementia | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex |
| Applied Health Informatics | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West |
| Behavioural science | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley |
| Cardiovascular | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Northwest London |
| Child health | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula |
| Economics | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester |
| Equality, diversity and inclusion of under-represented groups | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands |
| Inequalities | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria |
| Mental health | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England |
| Multimorbidity | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands |
| Operational research modelling | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula |
| Palliative and end-of-life care | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England |
| Population health | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North Thames |
| Prevention | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria |
| Social care | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex |
| Urgent and emergency care | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber |
The 13 NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs) were local partnerships between NHS providers, universities, charities, local authorities, Academic Health Science Networks and other organisations. The CLAHRCs scheme closed in September 2019 and has been succeeded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) scheme.
Between 2014 and 2019, the NIHR invested £144.8 million over five years into CLAHRCs to accelerate implementation of health and care evidence into day-to-day practice.
The CLAHRCs undertook applied health research to tackle local health and care needs in their region, with an emphasis on chronic disease and public health interventions.
They also had a key role in bridging the second translational gap by investigating how new interventions shown to be effective by research could be implemented, creating and embedding approaches that were specifically designed to take account of the way that healthcare is delivered in their region.
The CLAHRCs were each hosted by an NHS Trust and covered a specified region of England, creating regional health communities of the practitioners and organisations in an area who conduct applied health research and those who use it in practice.
The CLAHRCs each had a number of research themes decided on the basis of the local needs in their region and the expertise among their collaborators.
Our 13 CLAHRCs were:
You can work our Applied Research Collaborations
