NIHR ARC South West Peninsula (PenARC)

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research and provides the people, facilities and technology that enables research to thrive.

NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) support applied health and care research that responds to, and meets, the needs of local populations and local health and care systems.

The NIHR ARC South West Peninsula (also known as PenARC) is one of 15 ARCs across England, part of a £135 million investment by the NIHR to improve the health and care of patients and the public. We are a partnership of NHS Trusts and Local Authorities across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, plus the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth.

PenARC has three key objectives:

1. To increase the volume and quality of patient-focused research in the South West

2. To improve health outcomes by more effective use of evidence to drive health services

3. To increase capacity within the health economy to use and generate evidence

Our model of partnership working across the whole research and practice continuum aims to address both the much discussed research-into-practice gap and the equally important practice-into-research gap.