The Academy of Medical Sciences has convened a Working Group of experts from academia, industry, charities and the NHS to explore the sustainability* of health research in the UK.
For decades, the health research ecosystem in the UK has generated sustained health, social and economic benefits for the people of the UK and the wider world. The COVID-19 pandemic has again given us cause to celebrate the success of the UK’s scientific research and its linkages to industry. However, it has also shone a light on some of the inherent fragilities in the current system.
A thriving health research sector covering the fundamental understanding of biological processes as well as the ability to translate these into clinical benefits is vital to the health, prosperity and security of the UK. An evidence-based review of the long-term sustainability of the UK’s health research ecosystem is therefore timely.
The project will run through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022. We will gather evidence from a range of sources - which may include a call for written evidence, oral evidence sessions, evidence gathering workshops, commissioned research and previous Academy activities and recommendations - to develop a vision for what sustainable health research in the UK would look like, alongside specific recommendations for how to address the barriers to long-term sustainability.
*For the purposes of this project, we consider a feature of UK health research is ‘sustainable’ if it can continue to function as it does today, without resulting in a significant loss of quality, delay in outcome and/or increase in cost (where cost does not have to mean financial).
This project will set out to produce a short vision document on the future sustainability of the health research eco-system and pipeline for talent in the UK. The vision will consider the factors which constitute a sustainable health research ecosystem and explore the intersection between different actors including Government funders; Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); medical research charities; Independent Research Organisations (IROs); industry and the NHS.
It will be informed by evidence collected from a range of sources, which may include a call for written evidence, oral evidence sessions, evidence gathering workshops, commissioned research and previous Academy activities and recommendations.
The vision will include recommendations for relevant stakeholders pertaining to:
- The financial sustainability of health research in HEIs, IROs and the NHS
- The sustainability of the pipeline for health research talent (encompassing training, career development and cross-sectoral mobility)
- Cross-sectoral collaboration as a model for sustainable health research
- The role of a sustainable health research eco-system in preserving the future economic and health security of the UK
This project will be inclusive of the wide range of disciplines encompassed within health research and will take a four-nations approach to develop recommendations relevant to the whole of the UK.
The project is being overseen by a Working Group with a diverse range of expertise. The Working Group members are:
Co-chairs
- Dame Julia Goodfellow FMedSci, Independent
- Professor Peter Mathieson FMedSci, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of Edinburgh
Members
- Dr Rasha Al Lamee, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London
- Gilly Anglin-Jarrett, Lived Experience Expert
- Professor Frances Brodsky FMedSci, Director of Division of Biosciences and Professor of Cell Biology, UCL
- Professor Nicky Cullum FMedSci, Professor of Nursing, University of Manchester
- Professor Alastair Denniston, Consultant Ophthamologist and Honorary Professor, University Hospitals Birmingham/Universiry of Birmingham
- Professor Tim Eisen FMedSci, Global GU Oncology Franchise Head, Roche
- Professor Ian Greer FMedSci, President and Vice Chancellor, Queen's University Belfast
- Professor Jackie Hunter FMedSci, Chair, BenevolentBio
- Dr Harren Jhoti FMedSci, Chief Executive Officer, Astex Pharmaceuticals
- Professor David Lomas FMedSci, Vice-Provost Health, University College London
- Dr Maria Palmer, Director, NHS R&D Forum
- Sir Mene Pangalos FMedSci, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca
- Professor Ruth Plummer FMedSci, Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, University of Newcastle
- Sarah Rae, Lived Experience Expert
- Professor Caetano Reis e Sousa FRS FMedSci, Senior Group Leader and Assistant Research Director, Francis Crick Institute
- Professor Sir Nilesh Samani FMedSci, Medical Director, British Heart Foundation (BHF)
- Professor Irene Tracey FMedSci, Nuffield Chair in Anaesthetic Science, University of Oxford
- Professor Julie Williams FMedSci, Director, Dementia Research Institute, Cardiff University
- Professor Ele Zeggini FMedSci, Director, Institute of Translational Genomics, Helmholtz Zentrum München
Below are some of the key steps we expect to complete as part of this project. Some of them are sequential, while others will take place concurrently.
As we seek to reach each of these milestones, our goal will be to draw on the full breadth and depth of experience available across sectors, disciplines, career stages and geographies.
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Written consultation (seeking views on the most and least sustainable elements of UK health research, as well as the key barriers and opportunities for enhancing it)
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Deep-dive workshops (consulting a range of stakeholders - including early- and mid-career researchers, lived experience experts and other individuals drawn from across academia, the NHS, industry, charities and more - to explore in detail the key findings from the written consultation and wider research)
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Patient and Carer Reference Group (seeking to embed the perspective of patients and the public in each aspect of the project)
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Public dialogue (working with public engagement experts to seek the views of a representative sample of the public around the value of health research and its sustainability)
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Working Group (to steer and shape the whole process)
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Stakeholder testing (further consultation with a range of stakeholders - see above for examples - to seek early views on the project's possible recommendations)
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Peer review (organised by a separate secretariat to test and challenge the report before publication)
In and around these milestones, the project's Working Group and Secretariat (of Academy staff) are working continually to seek and synthesise evidence that could support a final report. If you would like to contribute in any way to the project please get in touch with the Secretariat via tom.livermore@acmedsci.ac.uk.
At the end of 2021 we ran a written consultation to seek the views of stakeholders from across the sector on what we should be prioritising in this project. The consultation is now closed - if you have views you would like to input please contact tom.livermore@acmedsci.ac.uk or joseph.ewing@acmedsci.ac.uk.
In this consultation we welcomed views from organisations and individuals on:
- elements of health research in the UK which are currently sustainable and those which are not
- key barriers to sustainability
- what might be done to address these barriers.
Consultation questions (these were open text):
The following questions focus on the sustainability of health research in the UK. Where the questions refer to different ‘features’ of health research, this means anything that plays a role in making health research happen.
For the purposes of this consultation, a feature of UK health research is ‘sustainable’ if it can continue to function as it does today, without resulting in a significant loss of quality, delay in outcome and/or increase in cost (where cost does not have to mean financial). Conversely, a feature is ‘unsustainable’ if it cannot continue to function as it does today, or that it can continue only with significant loss of quality, delay in outcome or increase in cost (where cost does not have to mean financial).
- When considering how health research operates in the UK today, which features are:
- Sustainable
- Unsustainable
- When considering how to make health research in the UK more sustainable, what are the major:
- Which single barrier/opportunity is of the highest priority to you/your organisation and why?
- Who is best placed to affect change in the areas you have listed? (can be one or more organisations, groups, individuals)
- Are you aware of any relevant published or unpublished evidence which we should consider during this project?
- Please share any examples where you have seen or experienced barriers to sustainability being addressed, or opportunities to increase sustainability taken.