The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is a United Kingdom government agency. It funds research into health and care and is the largest national clinical research funder in Europe.

The NIHR are primarily funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, but also receive UK Aid funding to support research for people in low- and middle-income countries.

The NIHR invests significantly in people, centres of excellence, collaborations, services and facilities to support health and care research. Collectively these form the NIHR infrastructure. The NIHR’s commissioned research programmes offer a focused source of funding for researchers within the health system in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also participate in some of these programmes.

One part of the NIHR infrastructure are the 22 funded Clinical Research Facilities – of which Newcastle is one.

Based in leading NHS organisations, the CRFs act as centres where researchers can deliver early-phase and complex studies.

The last round of CRFs was launched in 2016 and receive substantial levels of sustained funding – £112 million over five years.

• Find out more about the NIHR
• Find out more about the NIHR CRF infrastructure