Kingston University joins £22 million initiative to transform health and social care research across London

Kingston University has joined a new London-wide partnership to deliver health and social care transformation through research.

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 transition of evidence in practice – playing a critical role in making sure research delivers improvements in health and care for patients, communities and the public.

The partnership will see Kingston University work with 19 other organisations, including University College London, King’s College London, Imperial College London and a host of other universities, NHS trusts and health organisations across the capital.

The new ARC London is part of a collaborative network of 11 ARCs spread across the country, which work together to share expertise and learning to support research and implementation at scale while also creating collaborations to support innovative new medicines, technology and models of care into practice sooner.

ARC London will focus on four themes that will generate research answering the biggest challenges in the health and social care sectors, supporting the government’s ambitions for the transformation of NHS, public health and social care services. These are:

• 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 

For Kingston University, Professor of Social Work Rick Hood will be leading the Neighbourhood Health & Social Care theme, Professor of Occupational Therapy Cilla Harries will be leading Research Capacity Development and Professor of Health Psychology Tushna Vandrevala will be Co-Lead for Research Inclusion.

Their work with ARC London will help address health inequalities by embedding inclusive approaches across all areas to ensure the findings can be used more widely and are relevant for a broad and diverse population – supporting the capital’s ageing population and increasing levels of multiple long-term conditions which has put a growing demand on services.

Professor Vandrevala said work with communities and researchers will ensure inclusion is embedded from the outset. “London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, yet too often the people and communities experiencing the greatest health inequalities are underrepresented. From shaping the questions we ask and how research is conducted, we will ensure the findings translate into meaningful and equitable improvements in health and care.”

Professor Hood said ARC London was a great opportunity to bring together universities, services and communities to tackle key challenges for health and social care across London. “At Kingston University, we’re excited to be undertaking new research on integrated neighbourhood teams and working with partners to develop evidence to improve services and make a tangible difference to people’s lives.

 Professor Harries and her Kingston University colleagues Dr Maria Brent and Dr Melania Calestani will help develop the health and care research workforce of the future. “Research capacity building will be a very significant component of our work and it’s great ARC London will be offering more than 40 NIHR career development awards (predoctoral, doctoral and postdoctoral), as well as research leadership academies, researcher networks and practitioner fellowships.”

The learnings from the project will be shared and can be applied to populations across the country and funding for ARC London is part of NIHR’s £170 million investment to support 11 ARCs over five years.

• Find out more about research at Kingston University.