NIHR’s economic return at the regional and national level

Project Duration: April 2024 – September 2025

Lead partner, RAND Europe:  Agnė Ulytė and Jon Sussex

Lead BCU Researcher: Erez Yerushalmi

Funder: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

Background

In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the largest public funder of health and care research. Its investment supports research in health, public health, and social care, aiming to improve patient outcomes, enhance public health, and make the health and social care system more efficient, effective, and safe. NIHR collaborates closely with stakeholders across the sector to address key challenges and respond to evolving research needs. Its work helps translate discoveries into new or improved treatments, diagnostics, medical technologies, and services.

Publicly funded research in the health and care sector not only improves population health and care experiences but also drives economic growth. It creates jobs, increases income, and encourages commercial organizations to expand their research activities.

To evaluate the economic impact of NIHR’s investments at both regional and national levels, our lead partner, RAND Europe, has been awarded funding to conduct an in-depth assessment.

Project aims and Objectives

The aim of this study is to assess various NIHR activity and funding on health and social care research. The key objectives are to:

1. Describe NIHR-funded activities by type, over time, across regions in the UK.
2. Conduct case studies of NIHR-funded activities.
3. Estimate short- and long-term return on NIHR investment in the period 2013/14 and 2017/18, nationally and in separate regions, using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling.
4. Synthesise the results into overall insights into the economic effects regionally and nationally of NIHR-funded activities.

Birmingham City University's role:

We are developing an UK economy-wide multi-region multi-sector Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate the economic impact of NIHR-funded activities across different regions and industries. This model will provide a comprehensive analysis of how NIHR’s investments influence the broader UK economy.

Outcomes

A final report will be provided.

See our relevant Health Economics research with CGE modelling

• Internalizing social value in Healthcare: Optimal policy in mixed-public private systems.
• Economic modelling of AMR burden and antimicrobial use in livestock and aquaculture.
• The economic implications of physical inactivity.
• Potential Socio-economic impacts of antimicrobial resistance in Canda.
• See additional here.