NIHR Climate Change and Health Research Collaboration Awards

Support for collaborative research to build resilience into the delivery of health and social care services through adaptations that are designed to minimise the impact of extreme weather events.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Climate Change and Health Research Collaboration Awards will support research that addresses the challenges of climate change by building resilience into the delivery of health and social care services during severe weather events (made worse by climate change), for example, extreme heat and flooding.

The scheme wishes to:

• Bring together teams representing different disciplines, professions and sectors to submit plans for ambitious research and to catalyse future research capacity.
• Fund large scale, ambitious and transdisciplinary projects or programmes of research addressing key priorities and substantial areas of adapting health and social care systems in a situation of climate change and extreme weather conditions.

As global temperatures continue to rise, extreme weather events in the UK (eg heat, flooding and storm surges) pose challenges to the delivery of health and social care services through impacts on infrastructure, staff and overall ability to deliver, especially for the most vulnerable groups or regions. 

The call wishes to respond to risks posed by climate change to health and social care delivery in the UK and help build resilience into the system through adaptations. Applicants should focus on adapting health and social care systems and infrastructure to withstand climate change related extreme weather events. Priority will be given to applications focusing on clear evidence gaps, and interventions and solutions designed to minimise the impact of extreme weather events on health and social care delivery.

Applicants should consider the impact of the following in their proposals:

• Vulnerable groups and health disparities: Climate change and extreme weather does not affect people equally. There are specific vulnerable groups and it is important that health disparities are factored into any research proposal.
• Areas that experience the most negative impacts of climate change eg dense urban areas and areas prone to flooding
• Impact: Researchers are asked to work with those who use, work in and manage services to focus the research where there will be most benefit.
• Translatability: It will be beneficial if emphasis is placed on applications for real-life scenarios, and researchers are encouraged to work closely with stakeholders to help ensure work focuses on solutions and is translatable.
• Economic costs: To support translation and implementation cost effectiveness of any interventions is an important aspect. Understanding the financial implications and benefits associated with various climate change adaptations can help inform local decision-making and will help ensure the outcomes of the research are economically viable.
• Adding value: Research proposals will be expected to be clear about how they will complement and develop existing work and how it will help deliver solutions.

NIHR requests that researchers be cognisant of the Government’s net zero target when considering adaptations and interventions, and ideally for these to be low carbon.