The University of Liverpool’s Emerging and Zoonotic Infections research unit is leading the work of a new Health Protection Research Unit Network.
The new network will provide strategic leadership for the 13 NIHR Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) and 2 NIHR Health Protection Research Focus Awards (HPRFAs) in England.
The HPRU Network will connect these units with the broader health protection research ecosystem, ensuring alignment with NIHR, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and government priorities.
A total of £5.3 million is being provided to host the HPRU Network from 1 March 2026 to 31 March 2030. The network is a single entity that consists of a number of functions, led by various HPRUs.
The HPRU in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at the University of Liverpool will host the Core function of the network, providing strategic coordination across the HPRU Network and ensuring its smooth running with defined and accountable leadership.
Professor Tom Solomon CBE, Chair of Neurology at the University of Liverpool, Director of The Pandemic Institute (TPI), and Director of the NIHR HPRU in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, said: “Since their inception in 2014, the Health Protection Research Units have been driving vital research to protect the nation against the full range of public health threats. This new network will improve our ability to be efficient and collaborative, aligning us with government priorities and providing ministers with crucial, reliable information when they need it. We are pleased to be awarded funding to lead on several of the key functions within the new HPRU Network, and look forward to working ever closer with our partners to deliver this important work.”
Additional functions and the leading HPRUs are:
- HPRU in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections also hosts the pandemic preparedness and biosecurity (PPB) function.
- Knowledge mobilisation (KM), and public and community involvement, engagement and participation (PCIEP) functions are hosted by the HPRU in Evaluation and Behavioural Science, University of Bristol.
- HPRU in Radiation Threats and Hazards, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, hosts the research capacity development (RCD) function of the Network.
Research inclusion and health equity are integrated across these functions, particularly within the Core, PCIEP and RCD activities.
The Network is expected to collaborate with the central NIHR teams and the wider NIHR infrastructure to maximise synergy, optimise resources and reduce duplication.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Chief Executive Officer of the NIHR, said: “I’m delighted to see this Network bringing together the strengths of our HPRUs to deliver more coherent, impactful health protection research. Past and present outbreaks of infectious diseases show how quickly threats can emerge and how essential it is that UKHSA and wider government are supported by highquality, agile research and evidence.”