NIHR to Fund Major Partnerships to Tackle the Nation’s Biggest Health and Care Challenges
The NIHR has launched the first round of Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships (SIPs) – a funding opportunity to tackle some of the most pressing health and care challenges facing the UK.
A SIP is a new form of NIHR multi-year research funding which will create the evidence to answer strategic questions affecting the health and care system.
These partnerships will bring together expertise, capabilities and resources from across NIHR infrastructure and the wider health and care system to deliver research at scale.
SIPs will provide the research evidence to accelerate promising innovations through to patients and the public by bringing together expertise, capabilities and partnerships from across NIHR infrastructure and beyond. They will address challenges that no single organisation, discipline or infrastructure scheme could solve alone.
What will be funded in the first round?
This first round of SIP funding will support the ambitions of the 10-Year Health Plan for England and the shift from hospital-based care towards more community-based models of support and treatment.
Applications are invited in two priority areas:
• Technologies that enable people to live well and independently at home
• Reducing demand across urgent, emergency and primary care services
Up to £45 million is available through this first funding round, with applicants able to apply for up to £15 million per Strategic Infrastructure Partnership. Awards are expected to be between 3 and 5 years.
By creating ambitious, multidisciplinary partnerships across England, SIPs will accelerate the translation of research into life-changing improvements for patients, communities and the health and care system.
They will deliver change on a national scale, while also pinpointing common challenges faced by local communities across the country, tackling these collectively by bringing experts across research infrastructure together.
Find out more and apply now.
Minister for Health Innovation, James Frith, said:
“We cannot solve the biggest challenges facing our health and care system through any one organisation working alone. We will always be stronger when we bring together the expertise, ideas and experience that exist across our NHS, the research community, industry and local communities.
“These new Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships will help us do exactly that – tackling challenges both locally and at a national scale, and turning the very best research and innovation projects into practical improvements for patients and communities across the country.
“This is the 10-Year Health Plan in action: harnessing innovation and technology to help reduce pressure on urgent, emergency and primary care, while ensuring that the health service is always there for everyone when they need it, and where they need it.”
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and CEO of the NIHR, said:
“As the NIHR celebrates 20 years, it is looking for bold ideas and ambitious teams to lead these new, transformational partnerships. Our research infrastructure is full of passionate experts, with boundless experience. We want them to unite, combining their strengths with industry, local government, charities and many other partners, to accelerate exciting innovations and research to deliver real, lasting impact for patients across the country, and to drive economic growth.”
SIPs will be challenge-led, collaborative and impact-focused. They will support partnerships to generate evidence, drive implementation, remove barriers to adoption and help ensure that promising innovations reach the people and communities who need them most.
They will create a more connected and responsive research ecosystem, bringing together expertise from across the translational pathway to deliver greater impact, faster.
SIPs are not simply about funding excellent research. They are about creating partnerships capable of transforming how research is developed, evaluated, implemented and adopted.
