National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
The NIHR was established in 2006 under the government’s health research strategy; Best Research for Best Health. The goal was to create a health research system in which the NHS supported outstanding individuals, working in world-class facilities, conducting leading-edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public.
Today, the NIHR is the nation’s largest funder of health and care research. Our people, programmes, centres of excellence and systems together represent the most integrated health research system in the world. We have transformed research in and for the NHS and helped to shape the health research landscape more broadly.
With substantial funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), our scope is broad. We focus on the elements of the ‘innovation pathway’ from early translational research, though clinical and onto applied health and care research, working in partnership with funders of discovery science and those elements of the system focused on adoption and diffusion of innovation.
By connecting universities, the NHS, local government, other research funders, patients and the public, we deliver and enable world-class research that shapes policy, strengthens the health and care system, drives economic growth, advances science for national and international benefit, and improves lives.
The NIHR is centred on England, working closely with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which co-fund many of our programmes.