New five-year, £15.3 million health and care research programme begins in the North East and North Cumbria
A major health and care research programme for the North East and North Cumbria – supported by the University of Cumbria – has entered a new five‑year phase following a £15.3 million investment from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) entered the new phase on 1 April 2026 and now joins a network of Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) funded across England.
The ARCs will work together to support the transformation aims set out in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England, by developing research evidence and driving forward innovations to address some of the UK’s most pressing health and social care challenges.
Hosted by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) NHS Foundation Trust, the NIHR ARC NENC is a partnership between the North East and North Cumbria’s six universities (Cumbria, Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside), the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, health and social care providers, the Health Innovation Network NENC, and voluntary and community organisations.
This new round of funding will enable regional partners to build on work already delivered by the NIHR ARC NENC since 2019. This will include working nationally to scale-up successful work from our region and other regions to maximise impact and address health and social care priorities.
The ARC NENC programme will support people from a wide range of backgrounds to be involved in the development and delivery of health and care research that makes a real difference to people’s lives. This will include opportunities for health and care practitioners, patients, community groups and other public contributors.
The new programme will also increase research capacity in the North East and North Cumbria region through funded PhD studentships, research fellowships and Masters degrees, alongside other research training and development opportunities.
New research themes to address key areas of need
This new phase of work will be delivered through five refreshed research themes, which have been carefully shaped to reflect national and local health and care priorities.
The five new research themes are:
- Prevention including multiple long-term conditions
- Addressing inequity in health and care systems
- Supporting children, women, and family health
- Workforce inclusion and innovation for impact
- Care improvement and safety
The NIHR ARC NENC will be Co-Directed by Professor Eileen Kaner, Professor of Public Health and Primary Care Research at Newcastle University, and Professor Ruth McGovern, Professor of Public Health and Social Care at Newcastle University. The wider leadership team includes senior representatives from all six partner universities, including University of Cumbria.
Professor Joy Duxbury, Professor of Mental Health Nursing, Institute of Health, University of Cumbria is a key member of the ARC NENC leadership team. In her role, she will provide leadership around research linked to health and care inequalities in rural and coastal communities.
The NIHR ARC NENC will also fund an Applied Research Fellowship and two PhD studentships, at the University of Cumbria.
Professor Joy Duxbury, from the University of Cumbria, (pictured left) said:
"We are delighted to be part of this second round of funding in partnership with our NENC partners and to be contributing to this much needed work in addressing inequalities in and around our region. The opportunities for early career researchers at the University of Cumbria is particularly welcome and through this award we hope to continue to make significant long-standing impact for those most vulnerable in rural and coastal spaces."
Professor Eileen Kaner, Director of the NIHR ARC NENC, said:
“This new phase of our Applied Research Collaboration marks an exciting new chapter for our region. Applied research is vital in helping health and care systems respond to the pressures they face, and we know that organisations involved in research can achieve better outcomes for the people they serve. Since 2019, we have worked to deliver meaningful research that promotes good health, prevents illness and supports better care. This new phase allows us to build on that foundation, working with our partners to co‑produce relevant and timely research, scale up innovations that work, and strengthen the use of evidence across services. Together we will continue to strive for better, fairer health and care for people of all ages and in all places.”
James Duncan, Chief Executive of the CNTW NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“We’re proud to be hosting the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for our region throughout this next phase. This investment reflects the strength of our partnerships and our shared commitment to improving health and care through research that makes a real difference. By working together across sectors, and with the communities we serve, we can turn evidence into action, tackle health inequalities, and shape services that are compassionate, effective and fit for the future.”
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and CEO of the NIHR, said:
“This new funding shows the NIHR’s ongoing commitment to developing and delivering high-quality health and care research across the country. The investment will enable the Applied Research Collaborations to continue to bring new treatments and technologies to patients and the public, supporting the aims of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan to champion innovation and power transformation.”
Building on work delivered since 2019
Some of the successes from the first round of funding for the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria, include:
Highlighting health inequalities: Highlighting the wide range of significant health inequalities faced by communities in our region, including for women and children, and developing recommendations for change. Evidence developed around this was presented to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry and has fed into recommendations for change.
Supporting primary care: Supporting GP practices serving some of the most disadvantaged communities in the North East. This has included schemes to improve identification of cardiovascular disease risk, supporting patients to reduce their reliance on opioid painkillers, and new ways of delivering community-based mental health support.
Tackling suicide and self-harm: Developing a new approach to prevent self-harm and suicide, through personalised safety planning.
Reducing the risk of unexpected infant death: Developing new training that helps staff including emergency services and local authority staff to spot where babies might be at risk of being placed in unsafe sleep situations.
Supporting the public to deliver CPR: Identifying why members of the public might be hesitant to deliver CPR and delivering training to improve awareness and confidence.
Supporting people living with dementia: Through new training to deliver better mealtimes for people in care homes, and research into how activities linked to football can improve mental wellbeing.
Read more about the work of the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria
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Notes to editors
Notes to editors
More about the NIHR ARC NENC’s five new research themes
- Prevention including multiple long-term conditions
Co-leads: Professor Amy O’Donnell (Newcastle University) and Dr Floor Christie-de Jong (University of Sunderland)
Focus areas include supporting patients living with multiple long-term conditions and complex needs, promoting healthier working lives, improving care for older adults, and supporting the use of evidence‑based prevention approaches, in practice.
- Addressing inequity in health and care systems
Co-leads: Professor Clare Bambra and Dr Steph Scott (Newcastle University)
Work will explore ways to reduce health inequity, strengthen links between health, care and justice services, examine the impacts of factors such as employment and housing on health, and examine the links between poor health and work.
- Supporting children, women and family health
Co-leads: Professor Judith Rankin and Dr Ryc Aquino (Newcastle University)
Work will focus on ensuring a healthy start for children, especially those born into poverty, supporting women’s health, taking family‑centred approaches to care, and tackling inequalities affecting children, women and families.
- Workforce inclusion and innovation for impact
Co-leads: Professor Emily Oliver (Newcastle University) and Dr Simon Hackett (CNTW NHS Foundation Trust)
Work will look at the interconnected challenges of how we create more inclusive health and social care workforces and workplaces, diversify where and how care is delivered, and enable workforce transformation and system change, by sharing knowledge.
- Care improvement and safety
Co-leads: Professor Tracy Finch, Dr Michael Sykes, Dr Sebastian Potthoff (Northumbria University)
Work will include designing and testing improved care models that support the shift from hospital to home, research to improve safety, quality and patient outcomes in the health and care system, and developing practical tools and approaches that can be shared and used for system-wide improvement.
About the NIHR
The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research.
We do this by:
- funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care
- investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services
- partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research
- attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges
- collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system
- funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries
NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Our work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK international development funding from the UK government.
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