The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has confirmed that £80m of new funding will be made available to health protection research units in a bid to boost public health.
The funding is specifically for:
- long-term;
- acute; and
- emerging threats.
This includes everything from antimicrobial resistance and climate change all the way to pandemics and nuclear incidents.
The funding
Approximately £77m of the funding will be funnelled into 13 NIHR HPRUs from the start of next April – HPRUs are partnerships between universities and the UK Health Security Agency, with a broad remit to protect public health by horizon scanning.
The residual £3m will be made up via two health protection research focus awards, which will centre around vaccines and immunisation as well as emergency preparedness and response.
The lion’s share of the investment includes £11m to a HPRU hosted by the University of Oxford which will prioritise healthcare associated infections and AMR.
All other organisations have been awarded around £5.5m with focuses ranging from emerging zoonoses to public health genomics.
The Department of Health and Social Care has funded HPRUs for a decade – during which time the units have supported responses to things like Covid-19 and the recent mpox outbreaks.
HPRU research has also informed guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the World Health Organisation.
Prevention
The NIHR’s CEO, Professor Lucy Chappell has emphasised that this fresh round of investment will help build on the legacy of the last 10 years, further strengthening ties with the UKHSA.
Deputy director for research, evidence and knowledge at the UKHSA, Dr Carolina Arevalo, said: “It’s fantastic to see this investment in health protection science, supporting our ability to protect our communities from infectious diseases and the impact of chemical, radiological and other environmental health hazards.
“The HPRUs bring together expertise from academia and UKHSA to generate the evidence which enhances our ability to protect the public from health threats we are facing now and in the future.”
“One of the three core shifts in our 10-Year Health Plan is from treatment to prevention, and protecting public health is essential to this,” added the public health and prevention minister, Andrew Gwynne, in response to news of the funding.
Image credit: iStock
