Making a difference in the East of England – high-quality applied research and implementation partnerships

Delivering research and impact 

As part of this investment, ARC East of England, hosted by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, has been awarded £15.3 million to advance high-quality applied research in the region. The investment builds on a series of awards which enabled ARC East of England and partners to generate £62 million in additional research funding and deliver 260 research projects between 2019 and 2025. 

From April 2026, ARC East of England will continue delivering responsive and inclusive research focusing on – tackling health and care inequalities, improving outcomes for communities, patients, and the public and accelerating the implementation of effective interventions and care models into practice. It will be led by Professor Stephen Morris of the University of Cambridge.  

Partnership pervades 

Applied research focuses on solving real‑world health and care challenges, and it should be celebrated even in a region with world‑leading universities because it turns academic expertise into practical solutions that improve people’s lives, strengthen services and help innovations reach communities faster.  

The ARC East of England team has developed partnerships across the region that represent the breadth of services and innovations that benefit the region’s residents. Health Innovation East along with NHS providers, Integrated Care Systems, Local Authorities, patient-led organisations and industry partners work alongside the ARC East of England. Responding to the needs of health and care systems – uniquely fitting between and enabling applied research to be supported – is paramount for all partners.  

Health Innovation East’s partnership 

Our partnership with ARC East of England contributes to our goal of getting the best ideas in health and care to the people, places and problems where they are needed most. Health Innovation East’s director of health partnerships and insight also leads the workstream ‘knowledge mobilisation and implementation for impact’, ensuring that research projects create impact. The partnership also includes two senior advisors in boundary spanning roles who are committed to building skills and capacity for knowledge mobilisation and implementation across the regional network. 

British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) – increasing bowel cancer screening in Muslim communities 

Health Innovation East, working with BIMA, ARC East of England and NHS England and Improvement, designed and evaluated an educational bowel cancer screening programme in Peterborough. 

Cancer screening initiatives play an important role in early disease detection and prevention. Bowel cancer screening uptake is approximately 28% lower among people of South Asian ethnicity compared to the general population. In the case of bowel cancer, early detection and treatment considerably improve survival outcomes – 9 in 10 people survive for five years or more when diagnosed at an earlier stage compared to 1 in 10 when diagnosed at a later stage.  

Preliminary evaluation findings point to the programme improving understanding of the need for screening and increased participant intention to request screening kits. The evaluation also recommends ways to overcome barriers to uptake. Finally, the publication reflects on the importance of a) future studies focussing even more on community engagement b) scaling the programme to generate further robust evidence to inform policy and practice.