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A national publication highlighting how National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaborations (NIHR ARCs) rose to the challenge of COVID-19 has been launched, on the third anniversary of the first UK lockdown.

Vital work from across the ARCs in response to the pandemic is showcased in NIHR ARCs: Supporting the fight against COVID-19 (PDF), including projects led by researchers from the North East and North Cumbria.

The publication brings together case studies demonstrating how ARCs pivoted their research programmes in response to the pandemic. It showcases work across a range of themes including children and young people, care homes, equality and diversity, end of life care and workforce planning.

Work in the North East and North Cumbria included research into the links between COVID-19 and existing health inequalities – with a focus on how health inequalities needed to be tackled so that the impact of the pandemic doesn’t widen health inequalities for future generations.

This included supporting a Health Inequalities Impact Assessment for the region, and the publication of several reports into the impact of COVID-19 on health and wealth in the North of England, which were reported on widely in the media and presented in Parliament.

COVID-19 is hitting the North hardest – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

Recover and rebuild: New research offers practical advice on how to ‘level up’ health at an area level – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

Deprived communities in the North of England ‘shouldered the greatest burden’ of COVID-19. – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

Report reveals impact of COVID-19 on the North’s health and economy – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

Declining mental health, long COVID and preventable deaths – how the COVID-19 pandemic hit the North harder – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

Academics call for more support in deprived areas as UK faces winter ‘twindemic’ of COVID-19 and flu – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

North of England experiences a ‘parallel pandemic’ of mental ill health alongside Covid-19 – ARC (nihr.ac.uk)

Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive of the NIHR and the Department of Health and Social Care’s Chief Scientific Advisor, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic was unlike any health crisis we had experienced for a century. In order for us to tackle the pandemic swiftly and strongly, we needed a collaborative and sustained approach across health and care research that harnessed the power of our collective effort like never before.

“This impressive report sets out how that effort was provided, extending across many different themes, specialisms, and areas of the country. It illustrates how researchers, working together to tackle a common cause, can have such an important impact for patients and the public.”

In the foreword, the ARC Directors write:

“In 2020, we made rapid changes to our research programmes across the ARCs, to inform policy and practice, improve health and care, and deliver national-level impact in this rapidly changing landscape.

“Our expertise in data modelling, multiple long-term conditions, mental health and social care alongside our ability to build and sustain collaborations across the NHS, social care, the voluntary sector and industry, has placed us in a unique position. We have been able to contribute to the efforts to understand the virus and its impact on communities, locally, nationally and globally.

“This publication outlines our response as ARCs, both collectively and individually, to this challenge. It showcases the part we have played in supporting the health and care sector and patients, public and communities. We are proud of our part in lending our expertise to understanding the disease and assisting the global effort to contain it, improving outcomes and saving lives.”

Download NIHR ARCs: Supporting the fight against COVID-19 (PDF).