Printed: 01 August 2023
NIHR has awarded over £100 million to twenty new Coverage Analysis Models (PRUs) throughout England. The PRUs will sort out essential rising well being and social care points together with reproductive well being, habit and dementia.
The PRUs, funded by NIHR’s Coverage Analysis Programme, play an important function in ensuring the federal government and arm’s size our bodies have the very best data and proof accessible when making coverage choices about well being and social care.
Every university-based unit will convey collectively a staff of researchers from collaborating establishments. The PRU researchers will reply to coverage analysis wants and develop analysis programmes that present proof for present and rising analysis priorities.
NIHR at present funds 15 PRUs protecting a broad vary of matter areas. These areas will nonetheless be lined by the brand new Models, whereas two of the earlier PRUs (Weight problems and Older Individuals and Frailty) have been renamed to raised replicate their precedence space. On this spherical of funding, they are going to be renamed as Wholesome Weight and Wholesome Ageing. Contracts for the present models will finish in December 2023.
To deal with rising points for the well being and social care techniques and assist the Division of Well being and Social Care’s strategic priorities, NIHR has expanded the variety of PRUs it is going to fund for the subsequent cycle. The overall 20 new models will start work in January 2024. Every unit will obtain £3-5.5m over the course of a 3 to five yr contract. The bigger Coverage Innovation and Analysis Analysis Unit (PIRU) has an anticipated price range of virtually £10.5 million over a 5 yr interval.
The rising PRUs will cowl the next matter areas:
Palliative and Finish of Life Care
Addictions
Reproductive Well being
Dementia and Neurodegeneration
The brand new PRU in Reproductive Well being has been arrange as a part of the federal government’s Girls’s Well being Technique, which launched in 2022. The brand new Maternal and Neonatal Well being and Care PRU may even contribute useful new proof to tell coverage choices that can enhance the well being and wellbeing of girls and ladies in step with the goals of the technique.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Advisor DHSC and Chief Govt of the NIHR, mentioned “Within the NIHR, we’ve got a variety of the way to guarantee that well being and care analysis advantages sufferers and the general public. The NIHR’s new Coverage Analysis Models are designed to offer robust analysis of coverage. This helps authorities and associated organisations to have the ability to act on the most recent proof when making choices about well being and social care that would influence us all.
“We’re funding Coverage Analysis Models throughout a variety of key areas of coverage starting from most cancers screening to social care. A number of new subjects will develop the power of the models to assist handle the foremost healthcare challenges that we face, together with enhancing reproductive well being, tackling habit in addition to dementia and neurodegeneration.”
Girls’s Well being Technique Minister Maria Caulfield mentioned: “We’re investing £100 million into 20 new analysis hubs that can convey collectively key specialists to sort out a variety of points together with finish of life care, addictions, dementia, and neurodegeneration.
“As a part of the Girls’s Well being Technique, we promised extra analysis can be achieved to enhance understanding and coverings for girls’s well being points – immediately we’re delivering a brand new unit wanting particularly into reproductive well being.”
Professor Dame Lesley Regan, Lady’s Well being Ambassador for England, mentioned: “This a lot welcomed funding, going to a variety of essential well being care points, has rightly prioritised reproductive well being and likewise dementia, which is a significant explanation for incapacity and loss of life in girls.
“This is a crucial step in our mission to ship the Girls’s Well being Technique and emphasises the important function that analysis performs in our understanding of the important thing points that can decide how we enhance girls’s well being and wellbeing.”
Offering proof for coverage analysis wants
The PRU system has been working efficiently because the Seventies. The Models provide the Division of Well being and Social Care direct entry to prime teachers in varied fields. PRUs have been instrumental in shaping a variety of insurance policies.
Over the previous 5 years, the 15 present PRUs have supplied proof for quite a lot of totally different coverage precedence areas. They’ve supplied a long-term useful resource for coverage analysis and a speedy response service to offer proof for rising coverage wants.
NIHR’s PRU in Most cancers Consciousness, Screening and Early Analysis confirmed that the advantages of taking part within the NHS breast most cancers screening programme outweigh the small danger of overdiagnosis. The PRU was additionally concerned within the first lung most cancers computed tomography (CT) screening trial within the UK. The outcomes gave robust assist for lung most cancers screening in recognized high-risk teams comparable to people who smoke.
NIHR PRUs 2024-2028
Particular situations
Precedence space Host establishment Most cancers Consciousness, Screening and Early Analysis College School London Wholesome Weight College School London Psychological Well being College School London Addictions King’s School London Reproductive Well being College School London Dementia and Neurodegeneration Queen Mary College of London and College of Exeter
Life phases
Precedence space Host establishment Maternal and Neonatal Well being and Care College of Oxford Kids and Households UCL Nice Ormond Road Institute of Little one Well being Wholesome Ageing College of Newcastle Upon Tyne Palliative and Finish of Life Care King’s School London
Specialisms
Precedence space Host establishment Economics of Well being and Social Care Methods College of York Financial Strategies of Analysis in Well being and Care Methods College of York Coverage Innovation and Analysis London Faculty of Hygiene and Tropical Medication Behavioural and Social Sciences College of Newcastle Upon Tyne
System directed
