Our Research Strategy

Health and care research that makes a difference to those who need it most

The NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Research Strategy 2025 to 2028 has been co-developed with many of our Partners, including colleagues across the NHS, local Universities, Local Authorities, Community Care and Voluntary sectors, as well as Patient and Public Inclusion representatives.

The development process for our strategy uncovered a clear shared aim for health and care research to make a difference for those who need it most. Currently, four prominent factors are limiting our ability to achieve this shared aim:

Health and care research is not inclusive for our entire population, with those with the greatest needs having the fewest opportunities to participate.
Health and care research is not always focused on the same issues as the Integrated Care System.
There is an under-representation of the many professions that make up our system workforce due to unequal opportunities to participate in research.
There are scarce resources for research and innovation in community health and social care settings.

Other pages in the Research section:

We have great examples of projects that overcome these problems. This strategy builds on these examples to help make those exceptional cases business as usual for local health and care research.

To achieve this aim, we have developed five strategic pillars to drive ICB research support:

Targeting the greatest needs.
Radically diversifying research.
Academic partnerships at every level of the Integrated Care System.
Accelerating research into practice.
Generating resources for the Integrated Care System.

Read our Research Strategy 2025 to 2028

Our Strategy on a Page is a visual snapshot of the strategy. It is divided into five sections, setting out the five strategic pillars to drive ICB research support, as explained in the full strategy document.