We’re committed to partnering with health and social care charities to support high quality research.
By working together, we drive alignment in the health and care research ecosystem to ensure research provides the maximum benefit for patients and the public and that as funders we make best use of our resources and expertise.
A key ingredient in NIHR’s success has been working with partners from across the charity sector. We actively engage with health, public health and social care charities to accelerate health and care research and bring benefits to patients faster.
We collaborate through jointly funding research and training programmes, and work together to streamline the research process and reduce bureaucracy. Our research infrastructure – facilities, networks, expert researchers and technology platforms – helps to underpin the research funded by charities that is crucial to improving health care.
There are three main ways that charities can work with the NIHR:
You can work with us across the research pathway: to understand the research landscape, identify research needs, fund research, plan and deliver research, and disseminate research. We can also work together to attract, develop and retain researchers and to share expertise and develop best practice.
We primarily work with charities that have a research funding function. Nevertheless we are keen to work with charities that have other main functions, such as research delivery and provision of services.
We can each share our knowledge of the national NHS, public health and social care research landscape to inform our respective priorities and research questions.
We can work together to identify research needs and help set research priorities.
We can collaborate to fund high quality research in areas of shared interest.
Researchers you fund can access our services and support to plan and deliver research in the NHS or in public health or social care settings.
Did you know? Charities can become non-commercial partners of the NIHR, so their researchers can get quicker access to our research delivery support. Find out more.
We can work together to share research findings to extend their reach and support changes to practice.
Together we can provide invaluable training and development opportunities to attract, develop and retain a research workforce ready for the complex health challenges of the future.
We can reciprocally share the knowledge and expertise of our clinical, patient and professional experts, and advice on funding and supporting high quality research, to improve the quality of health and care research across the board.
