Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the National Institute for Health and Care Research is taking to reduce regional variations of their health research funding; and what steps they are taking to increase the trend in the level of funding in Yorkshire.

The Department is committed to funding health and care research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England, to ensure that the research we support is inclusive and representative of the populations we serve.

NIHR infrastructure has national coverage across the whole of England. Our infrastructure schemes aim to build research capacity and capability across the country, including in Yorkshire.

The NIHR Research Delivery Network is the main vehicle by which the Department enables clinical research delivery. The Research Delivery Network will adopt a new national funding model for National Health Service support costs and research delivery from 2026/27. This will be a consistent, nationally agreed funding distribution model across all regions of England. The new model will reduce regional variations of health research delivery funding and enable a more transparent, fair, and predictable system of funding that supports the Government’s priorities and the needs of the whole health and care system, including underserved areas and settings.

11 NIHR-funded research infrastructure sites are based within Yorkshire, which is approximately 10%. These span the health and care research pathway, from invention to evaluation and implementation, and include: the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Regional Research Delivery Network; the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres and NIHR Clinical Research Facilities in Leeds and Sheffield; the NIHR Applied Research Collaborative Bradford; the NIHR Sheffield Children’s Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) and the NIHR Bradford and West Yorkshire CRDC; and the NIHR Patient Safety Research Centre in Yorkshire and Bradford.

NIHR research funding opportunities are advertised through either commissioned calls to answer specific research questions, researcher-led workstreams, or themed calls and highlight notices, which provide funding opportunities in Government high-priority areas. Funding committees assess applications that apply to the funding calls and are briefed to consider the equitable distribution of funding.