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The NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme is inviting outline applications for a commissioned funding opportunity focused on early action and prevention within health and social care services. The call aims to fund high quality applied research that can strengthen the evidence base for prevention, improve service delivery, and support better health and wellbeing outcomes at a national level.
This opportunity aligns with Department of Health and Social Care Area of Research Interest (ARI) 1, which prioritises early action to prevent poor health outcomes. The overarching goal is to reduce excess deaths, improve population health, decrease disparities, and ease pressure on health and social care services.
What the programme is looking for
The HSDR Programme supports evaluative research that improves how health and social care services are delivered and organised. Research can be primary, secondary or evidence synthesis, and is often best delivered through mixed-methods approaches that combine quantitative and qualitative insights. A strong focus on patient, service user and staff experience is expected, alongside robust analysis of service use, outcomes and system performance.
For this call, prevention is interpreted broadly and can include:
Applications must clearly demonstrate how the research will improve health or wellbeing through changes to service delivery, organisation or access, rather than focusing solely on individual-level behaviour change.
Scope and priorities
The programme is particularly interested in research that:
Studies must have national relevance. Proposals that are purely local or regional in scope are unlikely to be fundable unless they clearly generate transferable findings that can inform decision-making across the NHS and social care system.
Funding, stages and timelines
This is a two-stage commissioned call:
Key dates include:
The HSDR Programme expects to invest around £4 million across a number of studies through this opportunity. There are no fixed limits on project duration or funding amount, but value for money will be a core assessment criterion.
Study design and impact expectations
The programme is not prescriptive about methodology, but proposals must have clearly defined research questions, aims and objectives. Studies should be designed to generate generalisable and actionable findings that decision-makers in the NHS, social care, local government and policy can use to improve prevention services.
Applicants are expected to give serious consideration to pathways to impact, including how findings will be mobilised and used by stakeholders such as integrated care systems, commissioners, service leaders, public health teams, charities and community organisations.
How Inventya can help
Inventya supports academic teams, NHS organisations and delivery partners to develop competitive NIHR applications that are both methodologically robust and decision-maker focused.
For this HSDR opportunity, we can help you:
With Inventya’s support, your proposal can move beyond a good research idea to a well-structured, policy-relevant study that demonstrates why prevention research matters now, and how it can drive lasting improvement across health and social care services.
