Essex to support £15.3m health and care research

Essex academics will team up with experts across the East of England as part of a multimillion-pound research project into health and social care.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)will be providing the funding as part of a £157 million investment over five years across ten Applied Research Collaborations (ARC).

NIHR ARC East of England has secured £15.3 million in funding, from April 2026 to March 2031, to continue delivering impactful applied research across the region and beyond.

The programme will launch in April with refreshed objectives and new priority areas across research themes and workstreams, ensuring the research continues to meet the needs of communities and health and care services across the region.

NIHR ARC East of England will focus on utilising its partnerships to deliver research that tackles major health and care challenges, reduces inequalities among populations with the greatest need, and supports the translation of research evidence into real-world practice.

Dr Angus Holford, of Essex’s Institute for Social and Economic Research, will be a co-lead for the Prevention and Early Detection in Health and Social Care research theme, while Dr Danielle Tucker, from Essex Business School, will co-lead the Knowledge Mobilisation and Implementation for Impact workstream.

Dr Tucker said: “This funding provides an important opportunity to strengthen how evidence is translated into practice.

“Through NIHR ARC East of England, we can work closely with partners across health, care and communities to support implementation that is meaningful, timely and grounded in local need, helping ensure that research leads to real and sustainable improvements across systems.”

Essex will also be represented by Professor Victoria Joffe, Dean of Integrated Health and Care Partnerships, who will sit on the ARC East of England board to support the delivery of strategy.

Professor Susan McPherson, Deputy Director of Essex’s Public Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing, will form part of the Management Operations Group (MOG) and will ensure effective and productive relationships between the ARC and partner universities.

Professor McPherson added: “The NIHR ARC East of England plays a significant role in shaping the regional health research landscape and shares with the University of Essex a strong commitment to research which delivers improvements in health equity to local populations.

“The University of Essex is very proud to be a core member of the collaboration and to support its ongoing achievements, partnerships and collaborations across regional and local health and social care systems.

“Our contribution will focus on mental health, food systems and diet, econometrics, health data linkage, research capacity in social care, dementia and research inclusion for underserved groups.

“Our work has a focus on health inequalities, including an emphasis on using our research to serve disadvantaged populations in Essex, including our coastal communities, which remain high priority areas for the University of Essex.”

The NIHR ARC East of England is hosted by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, working in partnership with Essex and four other regional universities, Health Innovation East, NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Systems, local authorities, patient-led organisations, charities and industry partners to deliver research that improves outcomes, experiences and access to care.

Since its inception in 2019, ARC East of England has delivered impactful research across the region, building on earlier collaborative work that helped establish long-lasting partnerships with researchers, communities, and health and care organisations.