City St George’s has joined a major new London-wide partnership that will use research and collaboration to improve health and social care outcomes across the capital and beyond.
Published
The NIHR London Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) brings together NHS trusts, universities, and other expertise from across the capital to tackle some of the UK’s most pressing health and social care research priorities.
ARC London, backed by £22 million of government funding and hosted by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, will provide high-quality health and social care research and support the translation of evidence into practice, playing a critical role in making sure research delivers real-world improvements in health and care for patients, communities and the public.
City St George’s is one of 20 partner organisations involved across the capital, working alongside leading institutions including University College London, King’s College London and Imperial College London.
The new ARC London is part of a collaborative network of 11 ARCs, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which are spread across the country. The ARCs will work together to share expertise and learning to support research and implementation at scale, helping to accelerate the adoption of innovative medicines, technologies and models of care.
ARC London will focus on four themes to generate evidence and develop practical solutions in four key areas, supporting the government’s ambitions for the transformation of NHS, public health and social care services:
- Neighbourhood health and social care: supporting independent living, reducing emergency hospital visits, and better helping people with multiple health and care needs throughout their lives
- Prevention and early intervention in people with major conditions, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease and mental ill health
- Productivity and economic growth, to support the highest quality health and care services at an affordable cost
- Data sciences for healthcare, to help understand people’s health and care needs earlier to prevent illness and improve care
The partnership aims to tackle health inequalities by embedding inclusive approaches throughout its research programmes and ensuring findings are relevant to London's diverse communities.
At City St George's, researchers will contribute expertise across a range of disciplines, supporting ARC London's mission to improve health outcomes and ensure that research evidence informs policy and practice.
At City St George’s, Professor Angela Harden, Professor of Social and Health Sciences from the School of Health & Medical Sciences, will be the Co-Lead for Research Capacity Development. Through her role, she will help to strengthen research skills, leadership and career development opportunities across the health and care workforce to deliver research that responds to the challenges facing health and care services and move effective interventions and models of care into practice quickly.
Professor Harden said: “Developing a strong and diverse research workforce is essential if we are to improve health and care for future generations. ARC London provides a mechanism for researchers, NHS and care organisations, policymakers, communities and industry to work together on the questions that matter most – generating evidence about what works, for whom, and how it can be implemented at scale, all whilst ensuring we leave no community behind.
“At a time when the NHS is focused on prevention, neighbourhood care and innovation, ARC London provides a unique opportunity to generate the evidence needed to support lasting transformation across health and social care."
The funding for ARC London is part of NIHR’s £170 million investment to support 11 ARCs over five years.