Established in 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care funded the collaboration through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to maximize the use of current resources, attract additional funding, and bring in both commercial and non-commercial partners.
Led by Professor Avan Aihie Sayer, Director of the NIHR Newcastle BRC, and Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Director of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East Midlands, the MLTC CNC aims to strengthen cross-disciplinary expertise, capacity, and leadership in MLTC research. To do this it has awarded pump-prime funding to projects which will both advance MLTC research and demonstrate how to bring together a team that includes NIHR’s translational, applied and policy research infrastructure across the UK.
Three new projects have each been awarded £125,000 to focus on the key research areas Interventions and Prevention, Methodologies, and Models of Care.
The three projects bring together teams of researchers, spanning career stages, based across England and Scotland who represent over 20 universities and healthcare trusts. The new research awards will help to catalyse activity in priority areas and provide the basis for further funding applications.
Led by James Sheppard, Professor of Applied Health Data Science and NIHR Advanced Fellow, the Interventions and Preventions workstream’s project seeks to explore the association between physical activity interventions and development of risk factors for multiple long-term conditions in younger people (aged 18-35) with mental health conditions. This project represents the first step in developing novel physical activity interventions which may be used in primary care to reduce risk factors for MLTC in younger people with depression and anxiety and aims to develop an application for a follow-on study in this area.
In a project lead by Dr Salwa Zghebi, an Epidemiologist and Early Career Researcher from The University of Manchester, and Dr Jana Suklan, a Senior Clinical Test Evaluation Methodologist from Newcastle University, the Methodologies Workstream are investigating whether artificial intelligence (AI) enabled diagnostic tools for mental health are widening health inequalities for people with MLTC. The team aims to target external funding to continue the development of this research and as a long-term outcome to develop methodological guidelines to inform the development and evaluation of diagnostic AI tools aimed for mental health conditions.
Lead by Dr Felicity Dewhurst, a Palliative Care Consultant and NIHR Advanced Fellow based at Newcastle University, the Models of Care Workstream’s project will investigate appropriate measure of care-coordination for patients with multiple long-term conditions. From this work the team aims to develop a funding application to evaluate the newly developed measure's ability to assess care coordination.
By establishing three workstreams, the MLTC CNC has brought together colleagues spanning the NIHR Infrastructure landscape and beyond, alongside members of the public, to work collaboratively on these grant applications and seek further funding for projects that draw on expertise across the research pathway.
The infrastructure represented includes colleagues from NIHR Biomedical Research Centres, Applied Research Centres, HealthTech Research Centres, Research Support Services, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC), School for Primary Care Research, Blood and Transplant Research Units, Policy Research Units and Research Delivery Network as well as members of NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) and Strategic Priority Funding for Artificial Intelligence for Multiple Long-Term Conditions projects. All three new projects have also appointed Public Contributors as members of the teams, ensuring patient perspectives have been a key part of the development of the applications and will continue to collaborate on the delivery of the projects.
More about the MLTC