The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has partnered up with the DHSC to launch a new five-year Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC) project.
The multi-million pound endeavour is aiming to bring together the NIHR’s translational, applied, and policy research infrastructure, enabling researchers from a range of different specialties to answer MLTC-related research queries.
The new collaboration will also look to make the most of existing resources whilst also extracting the full potential of funding from commercial and non-commercial partners across the UK to improve research output and leadership.
NIHR Chief Executive, Professor Lucy Chappell, said: “A significant number of people across the UK are affected by multiple long term conditions, with real impacts on their health and well-being, and on how they best receive care within the health service overall.
“We know that understanding and tackling this challenge requires a multidisciplinary approach so that researchers, those with multiple long-term conditions and their carers, and health and care professionals can come together in a coordinated way.
“This new collaboration will bring in expertise and infrastructure across the NIHR and facilitate working together with key partners across the research ecosystem.”
To support the collaboration, a new Steering Group has been established to guide the scheme and help it achieve its goals. It is co-chaired by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for East Midlands’ Director, Professor Kamlesh Khunti, and NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre Director, Professor Avan Aihie Sayer.
The workstreams being focused on by the collaboration will be Models of Care, Interventions and Prevention, and Methodologies and Cross-cutting themes.
To achieve its goals, the collaboration will work in conjunction with pharma, MedTech, and a variety of other partners across the UK’s health research landscape.
Professor Khunti said: “This exciting initiative will help bring patient engagement activities together with all the NIHR infrastructures, third sector and industry partners enabling different specialities to collaborate on MLTC research. Another key part of the collaboration will be capacity development for researchers and patients.
“By working with colleagues from across the NIHR, but also with our partners, we are excited about what this collaboration can achieve and its potential to tackle the research questions that matter to people with MLTC and their carers.”
To learn more about MLTC research, click here.
