Research & The Healthcare System
Page last updated 21 January 2024
What will you find on this page?
How to use this section
This page includes lots of useful background on why research is important to the health and care system, how the Network's priorities align with other key stakeholders, and how together we are supporting the integration of research and care.
Each sub-section also includes hints and tips on how to engage each part of the health and care system. Useful links, videos, and reports from various sources are included for your own background knowledge or to use as evidence and prompts when engaging health and care organisations and professionals.
Integrating Research and Care
‘The more we concentrate on merely reworking our existing institutions, the more we fail to see or understand the nature of the new challenges that surround us.’ Hilary Cottam, Radical Help.
Department of Health and Social Care Publication: Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery
This vision paper was published in March 2021 by the DHSC to help move clinical research forward in the UK in the aftermath of the pandemic and the infrastructure challenges that followed it. It sets out a broad vision which includes the need to integrate research and care. It is useful to know about this work in progress.
Robert Peveler, former Clinical Director for NHS Engagement wrote a helpful blog outlining the main points, entitled 'Is this the vision for our future?'. Please see the Executive Summary and the full DHSC DHSC Saving and Improving Lives document for more information.
Normalising Research: Promoting research for all doctors
The GMC published its principles for promoting research for all doctors in mid-March 2022. It is an important development by a key regulator to support all doctors to contribute to research at a range of levels. Historically this has been difficult for many doctors whose time has been restricted by employers to non-research duties.
Click here to find out more.
New standards for Good Medical Practice which include the expectation to consider research opportunities as well as act with honesty and integrity in research will come into effect in January 2024.
Click here to find out more.
Transforming health through innovation: Integrating the NHS and academia
The AMS Report: Having consulted with stakeholders across the sector, the Academy of Medical Sciences sets out a series of actions to achieve six key outcomes considered essential for enhancing the interface between the NHS and the UK’s academic biomedical and health research sector:
Creating a healthcare system that truly values research.
Fully integrating research teams across academia and the NHS.
Providing dedicated research time for research-active NHS staff.
Ensuring undergraduate curricula equip healthcare staff with the skills to engage with research.
Incorporating flexibility into postgraduate training pathways.
Research for All
Royal College of Physicians: 'Research for All' is a strong statement which follows the work with the CQC, and endorsed by a range of Royal Colleges and related organisations including the NIHR. It concludes that Trusts should:
ensure that research activity is integral to the work of the organisation and its staff and overseen at board meetings
use job planning to protect time for clinical research, including within the direct clinical care programmed activities
Making research everybody's business
From NHS trusts, social care services and integrated care systems (ICSs), to regulators and funders, research is everybody’s business.Together with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the NIHR have published a joint position statement with the overall aim of embedding research in clinical practice.
The statement sets out a series of recommendations for making research part of everyday practice for all clinicians and stakeholders across the health and care system.
Integrated Care Systems & Research
Research can help Integrated Care Systems identify effective and cost efficient treatments, processes and systems
What are Integrated Care Systems?
The 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) which formally began their function as commissioning bodies on 1st July 2022 are designed to provide a joined-up approach to health and care service across their geography, including clinical services, public health, and social care. They present opportunities for greater reach into the general population so there is more choice about participating in research and for research to be responsive to population needs across these care services.
ICSs have an explicit remit to:
improve outcomes in population health and healthcare
tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access
enhance productivity and value for money
help the NHS support broader social and economic development
For more information on the Health and Care Act and ICS research duties click below:
Supporting ICS Leaders
Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are a key care delivery partner for the research community. Access to the Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) will become more and more crucial as so many health and social care decisions will be made at that level.
There is a real opportunity to embed research at an ICS level to improve population health outcomes for individuals and communities, particularly underserved communities. NHS England has published guidance for ICSs on how to maximise the benefits of research.
The NIHR can support Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs), and other ICS Leaders to facilitate and promote research in ICSs.
Supporting ICSs to engage and participate in research
The NIHR provides a number of functions to support health and care services to engage with research. These include:
advice on building a research culture
help identify local research needs
guidance on setting local research priorities
support designing, funding, and delivering research.
Supporting ICSs to use research evidence
The NIHR can work with ICSs to share research findings and support the use of evidence from research to inform decision-making and improve practice:
Our policy research provides new knowledge to improve or evaluate services or policies.
NIHR Evidence makes health and care research findings informative, accessible, relevant, and ready for use for all.
For more information about ICSs and Research please click the button below.
One NIHR Offer to ICSs Working Group
Coming Soon!
