Applied Research Collaboration 2 North West Coast (ARC2NWC)

ARC2NWC has been formed as a collaborative partnership (82 in total) between north-west universities, NHS trusts and primary care providers, local authorities, 3rd and charity sector organisations, Integrated Care Boards, Health Innovation Network, members of the public and the voluntary sector plus other research and clinical collaborations, to deliver improved services for patients and communities across the North-West and implement ways to improve care and reduce inequalities.

Delivering national change locally for individuals and communities

ARC2NWC will support the transformation set out in the Government’s NHS 10 Year Plan, the Life Sciences Sector Plan and the Government’s Health and Growth Missions by tackling some of the region’s most pressing health and social care challenges through high-quality applied research. It will also drive effective interventions and models of care into practice at pace.

ARC2NWC is part of a wider £157 million investment over 5 years in 10 regional Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) to support the transformation of the health and care system across the UK by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the research arm of the NHS.

Hosted by NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group (UHL Group), ARC2NWC will provide applied research findings and key evidence to hospitals, GPs and local authorities through projects which address systematic priorities in the local health and social care system.

Collaborating to identify and reduce regional health inequalities

All of ARC2NWC’s work will embrace ways to identify and reduce health and social care inequalities, alongside integrating the contribution of public and practitioner experts throughout the lifecycle of its research and its implementation.

The population of the region faces stark health inequalities. Average life expectancy can vary across local authority areas by up to twelve years, and healthy life expectancies vary by over twenty years.

By using this enlarged network of collaboration and research infrastructure, the ARC2NWC goals are to:

• identify, develop and deliver high-quality research on applied health, public health and social care
• provide greater resource and expertise to support implementation of effective interventions and models of care into practice across the region and country
• provide enhanced health economic expertise to ensure the economic impact of evidence is better understood to support decisions on efficiency and growth
• collaborate with commercial companies to evaluate and implement new NHS treatments and technologies, fostering UK economic growth
• speed up the implementation of research findings through the use of knowledge mobilisation.

Since their formation in 2019, the ARCs have been instrumental in delivering applied health, public health and social care research that improves outcomes for patients.

Strategic work areas

Research Themes:

• Long-Term Conditions
• Public Health and Prevention
• Social Care
• Workforce and Systems Resilience
• Women’s Health.

Cross-cutting Work Streams:

• Analogue2Digital
• Evidence4Impact
• Knowledge Mobilization
• Capacity Building
• Implementation and Practice
• Inclusion, Publica and Community Involvement.

Our workstreams are also cross-cutting: Capacity-building; Community and Public Contribution; Inclusion; Knowledge Mobilisation and Implementation.