Title: NIHR Applied Research Collaboration - Oxford and Thames Valley
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: The Oxford and Thames Valley Applied Research Collaboration (ARC OTV), led by world class applied and translational researchers, will deliver a focussed strategy in partnership with the users of research, including commissioners, clinicians, patients and the public. We will address key NHS priorities &ndash; better value health and social care services, focusing on those with the greatest need (especially the frail, multi-morbid elderly and those with long-term illnesses); better illness prevention, at public and patient levels; and better ways to provide improved care with less variation and lower demand on NHS services. We will seek to engage excluded groups in our research and explore questions of principal relevance to these groups, including the homeless, those dependent on social care or others for caring, those with enduring or severely acute mental health issues, as well as those at greater risk through income or ethnicity. This inclusivity plan will also link nationally to disadvantaged communities outside of the region. We will provide robust evidence of the effectiveness of these services and develop novel ways to implement these evidence-based changes for the benefit of patients, locally and nationally and at scale. Importantly, the OTV ARC will expand our significant existing investments in human capacity building of applied health researchers, including expanding public and social care research capacity, through training, mentorship, and methodological support. ARC OTV will link major NIHR and NHSE infrastructure (AHSN, 2 BRCs, NIHR MedTech, NIHR Schools), major universities in the region (led by the world s top institution), with health and social care provider partners, in local authority public health and social care directorates, acute, community and mental health hospital trusts, general practices and CCGs, and active public and patient collaborations. Objectives Overall: To undertake, and to increase the UK s capacity to conduct, high quality world class applied health and social care research focused on areas of greatest local NHS priority and need. Research targeted at major chronic multi-morbid diseases, in areas of care determined as important by patients and health and social care providers, and all within the NIHR over-arching priority areas of mental health, primary care, and public health. It will utilise population as well as patient level interventions, aiming to improve patient outcomes across the Oxford AHSN region, but to further lead evidence-based implementation nationally. Short (1-2 years): To design, seek co-funding where necessary, and determine the 3 and 5 year deliverables for each of the 5 ARC Research Themes. To identify the early exemplar projects for evaluating the new Implementation Theme programmatic method. If selected, to commence our first ARC led national implementation project, probably in stroke prevention. To agree a collaborative programme of training in public health and social care with our HEI partners, to roll out during the 5 years of the ARC. To develop, with service partners, a prioritised series of matched funded, local priority projects in public health or social care. Medium (2-3 years):To have early evidence or pilot data on novel interventions within all the Research Themes, to complete or lead into substantive evaluations with the ARC s five years funding. To continue to build the applied research capacity of the local university and NHS partners. To extend the competitive small project matched funding scheme in public health and social care and operationalise cross-theme research collaborations. Long term (4-5 years): To provide high quality evidence of clinical and cost-effectiveness of new service developments addressing key NHS and public health priorities from all the Themes, such as patient apps for better mental health outcomes, self-management tools for those with chronic diseases, and novel digital tools for reducing variations in prescribing. The ARC OTV is led from Oxford, the biggest centre for bio-medical and healthcare research in Europe (and top ranked in REF 2014 for the primary care, public health, and mental health submissions who lead this ARC application), in partnership with the regional leading universities delivering the next generation of public and social care practitioners, and in joint programmes with the region's providers and commissioners of personal health, public health and social care. We focus on 5 major research themes, 3 from CLAHRC Themes highly rated in NIHR feedback but with greater applied focus: Public health behaviour change interventions aimed at the primary prevention of obesity at both public and patient levels. Patient self-management, a potential national stroke prevention programme, utilising our self-care innovations in patients with hypertension; Delivering a collaborative programme of community health and social care improvement through ARC developed patient measures; The new Mental Health theme combining Oxford Mental Health s BRC and Reading University s excellence and leadership in child and adult mental health research. An Applied Digital Health theme, researching across themes, on digital health innovation to improve health and social care across OTV, evaluate digital tools to reduce variations in care, and test associations between multi-morbidity and outcomes across the population. Having considered up to 8 research themes, we determined that greater focus, cross-working, and co-investment would result from maintaining fewer themes with sub-theme leads to help integrate these within the main themes. These 5 Theme Leads with their 3 sub-theme leads are national applied research leaders in their fields (three NIHR Research Professors and four NIHR Senior Investigators). All ARC OTV research themes were confirmed as 'highly relevant' to local needs by regional public health and social care directors. Our major cross-cutting theme combines the study of novel methods for implementation with methodological support. This will include work testing diagnostic and prognostic tools and access to national leadership in Health Economics (Stavros Petrou, Philip Clarke), medical statistics, computing science and qualitative methods. The ARC OTV Strategy Board, chaired by the host NHR Trust chief executive, will comprise senior representatives of Oxford AHSN, Directors of NIHR Oxford BRCs, the NIHR MedTech Director, a regional Director of Public Health, two Social Care Directors (one child and one adult), plus the clinical leads for NHSE South, NIHR OTV Local Clinical Research Network, and Oxford CCG to ensure that the joint planning that went into this ARC application is maintained.

Lay abstract: The Oxford and Thames Valley Applied Research Collaboration (Oxford ARC), funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), will design and deliver applied health research studies to answer important questions for the NHS and the public. For some of these studies, where improved benefit is shown for patients or similar benefit at lower costs, the ARC will work with partners to implement these research findings more rapidly into NHS care than is usually the case. The Oxford ARC benefits from a well-established partnership between the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT), the University of Oxford, and a number of other NHS partner organisations. The Oxford ARC research programme will build on and extend the work of the similar NIHR funded Oxford Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Research and Care (CLAHRC), but with a greater focus on implementation of findings than was expected from the CLAHRC and with better connections with the extraordinary range of investigations underway in the Academic Health Science Network, funded by NHSE, within the same geographic area. The Oxford ARC is based mainly upon the world s most successful centre for medical sciences and will focus upon 5 Research Themes, all of which are areas of national importance and be led by internationally renowned scientists in each of the declared areas. These areas are: Disease Prevention through Health Behaviour Change Patient Self-Management Mental Health across the Lifecourse Community Health and Social Care Applied Digital Health All researchers will benefit from a sixth theme that will provide novel methods for their investigations and also help get changes into clinical practice. Although the research will be principally designed within the Oxford and Reading teams, the studies will be conducted across a variety of NHS settings that encompass the range of socio-economic, social isolation, ethnicities, and NHS service variation seen in modern society. This will help ensure the relevance of the ARC work. All the themes have shared or overlapping objectives to deliver transformational change and cost effectiveness for the NHS.

Research activity codes: 2.6 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (AETIOLOGY);8.4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGIES (HEALTH SERVICES)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE