Round two - August 2025
Our second round of seed funding applications closed in April 2025.
Two applicants have been successful in receiving funding in August 2025.
Blackpool Council adult social care team / Lancaster University
Developing a research proposal to explore the underlying drivers and mechanisms which facilitates high rates of long term residential care placements in Blackpool. The findings from this research will inform our understanding of why health inequalities exist within long-term residential care placements and support adult social care services in understanding the local community, in order to provide appropriate and meaningful care to the Blackpool area.
Blackpool Council climate team
Developing a research proposal to understand the impact of extreme weather on health and social care services and care home residents and the preparedness of services to deal with extreme weather events. This will contribute to developing practical climate adaptation strategies for implementation at both community and policy levels. As part of the project, Healthwatch Blackpool and community co-researchers will undertake focused engagement to ensure that local voices are centred in the research process.
Round one - January 2025
Our first round of seed funding applications closed in October 2024.
Two applicants have been successful in receiving funding in January 2025.
Libraries Connected
Carrying out a research evaluation using the Economic Value of Libraries (EVOLS) tool from the University of East Anglia to evaluate the impact of library-based activities tailored for communities with historically low health and economic outcomes. As a starting point, the EVOLS tool will be applied to Revoe Library to map activity and impact against community needs, potentially identifying hidden needs and sectors of the community not currently engaging with the library. By evaluating current provision, the libraries service can highlight areas for potential service development and compare the impacts of different programmes.
UNITED Youth Alliance CIC
Developing a research proposal to use Participatory Action Research (PAR) to explore the issue of gender bias in the information, advice and guidance given to young people and how this impacts on their health and wellbeing choices. The project will be led by young people. The insights gained from this project will feed into the development of future research proposals, will be used to raise awareness of the data and co-create social action campaigns. The learning will also be shared with peers nationally.
The NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Blackpool is part of the NIHR and hosted by Blackpool Council. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations enable local authorities to become more research-active, embedding a culture of evidence-based decision making.