The NIHR has awarded almost £700,000 in funding to seven development award research projects addressing the impacts of climate change and extreme weather conditions on health and social care service delivery.
This investment is designed to boost the UK's health and social care systems against the growing impacts of climate change. It is the first step in a larger effort to adapt health and social care systems to extreme weather conditions and strengthen national climate resilience.
Climate change is already affecting the UK by causing extreme heat, floods and storm surges. These challenges make it harder to deliver safe and effective care in hospitals as well as care homes. The impacts of climate change are particularly crucial for vulnerable groups of populations.
As experts repeatedly warn that more action is needed to combat climate change, the risks it poses have been reflected in the growing importance of the UN Climate Change Conferences (COP) over the past two decades. At the 26th conference, in Glasgow, Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Chief Executive of the NIHR, set out the need for evidence to meet the challenges of the changing climate and highlighted this as a priority for NIHR.
Development awards
Through the NIHR Climate Change and Health Development Awards, research teams were asked to develop and test ideas that build resilience and adaptability in UK health and social care systems during extreme weather. The funded teams will plan and deliver preparatory work for larger-scale more ambitious research collaboration projects.
Future investment
The funding that the awardees will receive from the Development Awards will help them develop plans for ambitious research and prepare to apply for the NIHR Climate Change and Health Research Collaboration Awards. This call is also open to all researchers without a Development Award.
These larger awards will provide funding of up to £2 million per project and be contracted for up to three years for large, programmatic research.
Taken together, these two funding opportunities start a major, long-term investment by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NIHR, which aims to build resilience into the core of health and social care in the UK.
Seven projects receiving funding
• ARCHI: Adaptation for Resilience and Equity in Communities and Health Infrastructure
Ms Susie Vernon, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and Prof Rajat Gupta, Oxford Brookes University
This project will assess how heatwaves affect hospital safety, bringing together researchers, staff and patients to plan cost‑effective building upgrades and create a partnership to pilot improvements that protect vulnerable patients and ensure resilient care.
• Heat-resilient paediatric care: Prioritising safe adaptations to overheating in children’s hospitals
Dr Chengzhi Peng, University of Sheffield
This project will develop a Heat Risk Mapping tool to identify overheating risks in children’s hospitals, creating tested strategies and guidelines to keep vulnerable patients safe and ensure hospitals remain resilient during future heatwaves.
• PREPARE for Health: Prison REsilience Planning And Response to Environmental Extremes for Health
Dr Dawn-Marie Walker, University of Southampton
This project will explore how extreme weather disrupts prison healthcare, identifying vulnerable groups and laying the groundwork for future research to improve services and reduce health inequalities.
• SHIELD: Social care Heat action Implementation to protect Everyone in Long-term care & Domiciliary services
Dr Daniel Hind, University of Leeds
This project will work with NHS staff to design and test practical cooling strategies, creating a national expert group to develop affordable solutions that protect staff wellbeing and ensure patient safety during heatwaves.
• Strengthening healthcare resilience to climate extremes: a spatial modelling framework
Dr Sarah Wise, University College London
This project will develop a computer simulation to test how extreme weather (such as floods and heatwaves) disrupts the blood supply chain, creating a digital tool to help NHS Blood and Transplant plan for emergencies and ensure patients receive blood when they need it.
• THERMOCARE: Cost-effective interventions to improve heat resilience of healthcare staff in hospitals
Professor Davide Filingeri, University of Southampton
This project will design and test practical strategies to help NHS staff cope with extreme heat, building a national expert group to develop affordable solutions that protect staff wellbeing and ensure patient safety during heatwaves.
• WARM: Whole-system Adaptation for Resilient Mental Health
Professor Peter Coventry, Manchester Metropolitan University and Professor Tim Doran, University of York
This project will examine how extreme weather impacts mental health services, working with experts and people with lived experience to identify vulnerabilities and set research priorities that strengthen and improve support systems in the face of climate change.
