The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has opened the first funding round for its Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships programme, inviting applications for a share of £45 million aimed at accelerating the translation of early-stage medical discoveries into real-world clinical adoption.
NIHR Opens Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships Funding Round
The £45 million funding call forms the opening tranche of a broader £260 million Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships (SIPs) programme, which was announced earlier this year alongside a £600 million initiative to expand the network of biomedical research centres (BRCs) across the United Kingdom. The funding round was announced on 23 September 2026.
A central objective of the SIPs scheme is to enable BRCs and other components of the UK’s research network, including life sciences companies, to collaborate on large-scale, complex health challenges. This first call places particular focus on projects that support the shift in healthcare delivery from hospital to community settings — a core pillar of the government’s 10-Year Plan for the NHS.
Successful applicants can receive between £6 million and £15 million over a period of three to five years. The NIHR is accepting applications across two priority areas: technologies that enable people to live well and independently at home, and initiatives that can meaningfully reduce demand across urgent, emergency, and primary care services.
The Link Between Community Care and Emergency Demand
The two priority areas are closely connected. Emergency care demand in the UK is currently at near-record levels, driven by poor patient flow, staffing shortages, and difficulties accessing care in the community, according to NHS waiting-list figures from the British Medical Association (BMA). By strengthening community-based solutions, the SIPs programme aims to ease pressure across the wider health system.
The overarching goal of UK health research funding through this mechanism is to accelerate the translation of research into life-changing improvements for patients, communities, and the health and care system, with projects designed to deliver change on a national scale.
James Frith, the UK Minister for Health Innovation, spoke to the collaborative intent behind the programme: “We cannot solve the biggest challenges facing our health and care system through any one organisation working alone. We will always be stronger when we bring together the expertise, ideas, and experience that exist across our NHS, the research community, industry, and local communities. These new Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships will help us do exactly that — tackling challenges both locally and at a national scale, and turning the very best research and innovation projects into practical improvements for patients and communities across the country.”
Bidding opportunities for further SIPs are expected to become available after September 2027, once the next cycle of BRC designations has been finalised.
UK Plans First-Ever Workplace Health System to Stem Economic Inactivity
Alongside the NIHR funding announcement, plans have been unveiled for the UK’s first dedicated Workplace Health System, designed to prevent some of the 300,000 cases each year in which people living with a health condition leave the workforce.
The proposal is set out in a new report published on 23 September 2026 by Sir Charlie Mayfield, co-chair of Keep Britain Working. The report argues that earlier and better support for people with health conditions or disabilities in the workplace is essential for driving economic growth and productivity.
Since 2019, the number of working-age people out of work due to ill health has risen by 800,000. The total cost to the economy stands at approximately £212 billion a year, according to the Mayfield report. The data also reveals a striking pattern in return-to-work outcomes: someone absent from work for four to six weeks retains a 96% chance of returning, whereas after a year of absence, fewer than half make it back.
The new Workplace Health System aims to build stronger workplace health provision that prevents health conditions from escalating and supports individuals in returning to work following absences.
Sir Charlie Mayfield was direct about the opportunity the plan represents: “Britain has spent too long treating economic inactivity as a welfare problem. It is not. Instead, it’s one of the largest and most attainable growth opportunities this country has. The new Workplace Health System would change that. The task now is to build it.”
