Category: News

Written by: Apostolos Tsiachristas – Knowledge Mobilisation Theme Lead

The NIHR Applied Research Collaborative Thames Valley (ARC TV) is working in close partnership with the emerging Thames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) to establish a new “Value Lab.” This joint initiative will help the ICB to evaluate NHS services and make more informed decisions about healthcare allocation for more than 2.5 million patients across the region.

As the NHS shifts toward a more strategic, value-based model of commissioning, ICBs are being asked to make increasingly complex decisions about how to most effectively use finite resources to improve population health and reduce inequalities. The Value Lab will meet this challenge head-on by bringing together expertise in health economics, data science, and implementation research to support evidence-informed decision making in real time.

Through close collaboration, researchers will be able to help generate practical evidence that responds to the most pressing questions facing NHS leaders. ARC TV is contributing embedded research capacity, including dedicated analytical staff and methodological expertise, while the ICB is providing core funding, leadership sponsorship, and direct integration into its strategy and commissioning functions. Together, this creates a shared platform where academic insights, system priorities, and population health needs can be aligned and rapidly translated into action.

A key enabler of the Lab’s work is the Thames Valley Innovation Fund, which provides dedicated resources to test, evaluate, and scale new approaches to care delivery and payment. By linking analytic capability with targeted investment, the partnership creates a full pipeline from identifying high-value opportunities through to implementation and evaluation. This work represents a new kind of collaboration between academia and the NHS that moves beyond observation to active co-production of solutions. It reflects a shared ambition to build a more strategic, data-driven health system that works to continuously improving the value of that care for the populations it serves.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) contributes to one in four deaths in the UK. Some communities, particularly racialised populations and those living in deprived communities are more likely to experience CVD than others. In partnership with the British Heart Foundation, the NIHR has released £50 million of funding to tackle the inequalities that persist in CVD in the UK. 

The University of Birmingham is one of nine consortia that have been selected to take part in the NIHR Cardiovascular Inequalities Challenge and includes researchers from Aston University led by Professor Shivani Sharma (Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise, ARC TV Co-Director).

This work will focus on co-creating practical solutions around detection and management of high blood pressure and cholesterol with the communities who are most at risk. CVDs such as heart attacks, strokes and other conditions such as vascular dementia are preventable with treatment to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Many people are not diagnosed or treated effectively. Practical solutions to better detect and manage high blood pressure and cholesterol in communities most at risk could reduce existing inequalities.  This work will capitalise on the ARC TV infrastructure and closely aligns with the ambitions and values of the ARC TV around collaborating with those most in need to co-design scalable solutions to persistent problems.

“We will bring creative participatory approaches to engage with communities in ways that feel authentic and aligned with diverse needs and preferences.  “At both Aston and within the ARC TV, we’re deeply committed to inclusive and participatory research, creating spaces where people can shape both the questions and solutions. Through this consortium, we’re proud to bring tried-and-tested approaches that open the door for more people – especially those often ignored in research- to influence how we tackle cardiovascular health gaps. This isn’t about ticking a box. It’s about building engagement that feels accessible, relevant, and genuinely meaningful to communities.”

PROFESSOR SHIVANI SHARMA