Funding awarded to address climate impact on care

Last Updated on January 19, 2026

Funding has been awarded to seven research projects to address the impact of climate change on health and social care service delivery. This National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) investment is designed to boost the UK's health and social care systems against the growing impacts of climate change. It is the first step in a larger effort to adapt health and social care systems to extreme weather conditions and strengthen national climate resilience.

Climate change is affecting the UK by causing extreme heat, floods and storm surges. These challenges make it harder to deliver safe and effective care - affecting staff and patients in hospitals during heatwaves, as well as residents in care homes and other people who rely on social care support and facilities. The impacts of climate change are particularly crucial for vulnerable groups of populations.

Through the NIHR Climate Change and Health Development Awards, research teams have been asked to develop and test ideas that build resilience and adaptability in UK health and social care systems during extreme weather. The NIHR invested £690,750 in total for the development awards - up to £100,000 each. The teams will plan and deliver preparatory work for larger-scale research collaboration projects.

The funded research teams will focus on:

Building research capacity in climate change and health adaptation.
Establishing partnerships between academics, health and social care professionals and policymakers.
Developing strong research methods and securing access to essential data.
Identifying knowledge gaps and assessing the effects on infrastructure, staff and services - with a focus on vulnerable groups.

The funding that the awardees will receive from the Development Awards will aim to help them develop plans for ambitious research and prepare to apply for the NIHR Climate Change and Health Research Collaboration Awards. This call is also open to all researchers without a Development Award.

These larger awards will:

Provide funding of up to £2m per project.
Be contracted for up to three years for large, programmatic research.

Owing to the risks posed by climate change, the UN Climate Change Conferences (COP) have grown in importance over the last two decades. In the 26th Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow, Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Chief Executive of the NIHR set out the need for evidence to meet the challenges of the changing climate and highlighted this as a priority for NIHR.

Commenting on the announcement, Professor Danny McAuley, Scientific Director for NIHR Programmes, said, 'We must focus on research that helps health systems adapt and build resilience as we face more extreme weather. Climate change will impact disadvantaged communities the most and we need to ensure health and care services can continue to provide the necessary care. It will also deepen existing health inequalities. That’s why these projects, which are focusing on some of the most vulnerable populations, are more important now than ever before.'

The full list of projects is:

PREPARE for Health: Prison REsilience Planning And Response to Environmental Extremes for Health, led by Dr Dawn-Marie Walker at the University of Southampton. This project will explore how extreme weather disrupts prison healthcare, identifying vulnerable groups and laying the groundwork for future research to improve services and reduce health inequalities.
WARM: Whole-system Adaptation for Resilient Mental Health, led by Professor Peter Coventry at Manchester Metropolitan University and Professor Tim Doran at the University of York. This project will examine how extreme weather impacts mental health services, working with experts and people with lived experience to identify vulnerabilities and set research priorities that strengthen and improve support systems in the face of climate change.
Heat-resilient paediatric care: Prioritising safe adaptations to overheating in children’s hospitals, led by Dr Chengzhi Peng at the University of Sheffield. This project will develop a Heat Risk Mapping tool to identify overheating risks in children’s hospitals, creating tested strategies and guidelines to keep vulnerable patients safe and ensure hospitals remain resilient during future heatwaves.
SHIELD: Social care Heat action Implementation to protect Everyone in Long-term care & Domiciliary services, led by Dr Daniel Hind at the University of Leeds. This project will work with NHS staff to design and test practical cooling strategies, creating a national expert group to develop affordable solutions that protect staff wellbeing and ensure patient safety during heatwaves.
THERMOCARE: Cost-effective interventions to improve heat resilience of healthcare staff in hospitals, led by Professor Davide Filingeri at the University of Southampton. This project will design and test practical strategies to help NHS staff cope with extreme heat, building a national expert group to develop affordable solutions that protect staff wellbeing and ensure patient safety during heatwaves.
ARCHI: Adaptation for Resilience and Equity in Communities and Health Infrastructure, led by Susie Vernon at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and Professor Rajat Gupta at Oxford Brookes University. This project will assess how heatwaves affect hospital safety, bringing together researchers, staff and patients to plan cost‑effective building upgrades and create a partnership to pilot improvements that protect vulnerable patients and ensure resilient care.
Strengthening healthcare resilience to climate extremes: A spatial modelling framework, led by Dr Sarah Wise at University College London. This project will develop a computer simulation to test how extreme weather (such as floods and heatwaves) disrupts the blood supply chain, creating a digital tool to help NHS Blood and Transplant plan for emergencies and ensure patients receive blood when they need it.