King's College London is co-leading a new partnership uniting London's health and care community, underpinned by a significant investment in the city's research infrastructure.
Backed by £22 million of government funding, 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 will be hosted by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, with the leadership team based at King's College London, University College London and Imperial College London, and partners spanning 20 organisations, including across King's Health Partners.
The partnership 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.
The new ARC London joins a collaborative network of 11 ARCs spread across the country. The ARCs work together to share expertise and learning to support research and implementation at scale.
Addressing the biggest challenges in health and social care
ARC London will focus on four research themes that address the biggest challenges in the health and social care sectors:
- 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
King's College London brings expertise in population health, data science and social science, alongside strong experience in major health challenges including mental health, maternal and child health, cardiometabolic disease and respiratory disease.
Ingrid Wolfe, Professor of Paediatrics & Child Population Health at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' is Co-Director of ARC London, joining the leadership team alongside ARC London Director Professor Laura Shallcross from University College London and Deputy Director Dr Ana Luisa Neves from Imperial College London.
Professor Wolfe said: "We have a golden opportunity to deliver research that will genuinely improve outcomes for our patients and the public, and I'm excited to start working with so many talented partners."
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.
Professor Ingrid Wolfe, Professor of Paediatrics & Child Population Health at King's
ARC London will respond to the issues that matter most to people living with the greatest burden of disease in London and beyond. It will help to address health inequalities by embedding inclusive approaches across all projects and programmes to ensure that findings can be used more widely and are relevant for a broad and diverse population, and any resulting intervention can be successfully delivered to the people who need it most.
King's researchers are leading collaboration across themes to benefit people living with multiple long-term conditions and children and young people, and King's Policy Institute is supporting the ARC's efforts to connect research to improvements in policy and practice.
Mieke Van Hemelrijck, Professor in Cancer Epidemiology at King's College London, is leading work focused on adults with multiple long-term conditions. She said: "This collaboration brings together researchers from across London with expertise spanning a wide range of diseases, populations and research approaches, and I'm particularly excited about the possibilities that brings.
Multiple long-term conditions are inherently complex, so no single discipline or disease area can address them alone. Combining our expertise will allow us to ask more ambitious questions and translate research into greater impact for patients and the NHS.
Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck, Professor in Cancer Epidemiology at King's
ARC London will also partner with other NIHR ARCs, NIHR infrastructure across London and partners in the life sciences sector, creating collaborations to support innovative new medicines, technology and models of care into practice sooner.
The funding for ARC London is part of NIHR's £170 million investment to support 11 ARCs over five years.
This new London ARC will play a vital role in turning research into real-world improvements in health and care, generating evidence across the capital that benefits communities nationwide. By bringing together partners from every corner of London, we have a unique opportunity to collaborate, innovate, drive economic growth, and deliver meaningful impact for patients.
Professor Marian Knight, Scientific Director for NIHR Infrastructure
