NIHR’s economic return at the regional and national level
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Background
Publicly funded research in the health and care sector leads not only to improvements in population health and experience of care, but also to wider economic benefits. These range from the creation of jobs and incomes to the stimulation of commercial organisations to increase the research activities they undertake. In the UK the largest public investor in health and care research is the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
What is the issue?
The NIHR aims to create a health research system in which the NHS supports leading-edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public. Under its mission to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, it encompasses a wide range of funded activities.
The NIHR acknowledges a duty to show the benefits of UK taxpayer-funded investment in research to wider society, including its economic impact. Assessment of return on investment for NIHR activity is crucial to inform decisions about future public investment in health and care research.
How are we helping?
The NIHR has awarded a grant to RAND Europe to conduct research to assess the economic returns at the regional and national levels to NIHR’s investment. The study will capture all types of NIHR activity and funding on health and social care research. The key objectives of the research are to:
- Describe NIHR-funded activities by type, over time, across regions in the UK.
- Estimate short-term direct economic effects of these activities with input-output modelling.
- Estimate short- and long-term return on NIHR investment in the period 2013/14 and 2017/18, nationally and in separate regions.
- Conduct case studies of NIHR-funded activities.
- Synthesise the results into overall insights into the economic effects regionally and nationally of NIHR-funded activities.
This research will provide important inputs to inform strategic decision-making at the NIHR.