Applied Research Collaboration

Visit the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Y&H Website

Our aims are:

• To support close relationships between the Applied Research Collaboration and end-users, including clinicians, policy-makers, healthcare delivery organisations, patients and the public.
• To support end-users using research evidence and evidence-based interventions generated through the ARC programmes.
• To develop a ‘pipeline’ of implementation work for the health and care system.

Our implementation approach is characterised by:

• Building on networks – we ensure access to our strong networks of clinicians, care provider organisations and improvement experts.
• Measurement – ‘measurement for improvement’ is fundamentally important both in frontline implementation and also in assessing impact at programme level.
• Behaviour change approaches – we embed behaviour change approaches within our implementation strategies, building on five years’ experience of training individuals to apply this approach.
• Strong public, patient and other service user engagement – led by our lay improvement fellows we have established effective ways to engage patients, other service users, and the public in developing implementation strategies and approaches.
• Learning from excellence – throughout all of our implementation endeavours we seek to learn from positive practical examples of excellence, recognising that there are many islands of excellence throughout our health and care system.