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Addiction Healthcare Goals

Published 6 December 2024

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What we do

The health and wider societal costs to society in England of illegal drug use is approximately £20 billion per year, with the harms from alcohol use estimated to cost another £25 billion. Since 2012 the number of drug-related deaths has more than doubled, and there are now approximately 5,000 UK deaths annually due to drug misuse. In addition, there are over 10,000 annual UK deaths from alcohol a figure which has been rising since 2019. Over 300,000 people are addicted to heroin and crack cocaine alone in England with 600,000 dependent on alcohol. The capacity of the treatment system has been increasing recently but is currently still insufficient to meet the need for alcohol support.

The Addiction Healthcare Goals, announced as part of the UK’s Drug Strategy: From Harm to Hope, and delivered as one of the Office for Life Sciences’ Healthcare Goals programmes, is aiming to help reduce this cost by enhancing the UK-wide research environment and incentivising the development of innovative and effective new treatments, technologies and approaches to support recovery, and reduce the harm and deaths addiction can cause.

In November 2022, £30.5 million of government funding was announced for delivery of the Addiction Healthcare Goals.

The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme is delivering on two key areas:

  • Funding innovation competitions to attract industry and innovators to the UK and catalyse the development and deployment of new and effective interventions that help to treat drug addiction, aid in recovery, or prevent drug misuse related harm and deaths.
  • Transforming the ecosystem for drug and alcohol addiction research in the UK: better linking multidisciplinary researchers and treatment delivery partners with industry and innovators, enhancing research capacity and the ability to deliver novel patient research, and accelerating the development, testing and use of innovations targeting addiction.

Addiction Healthcare Goals Research Ecosystem: catalysing innovative addiction research across the UK.

To date the programme has:

  • Launched the £5 million Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation Challenge in partnership with the Scottish government to catalyse the development of innovations to improve detection of, response to, and intervention in potentially fatal drug overdoses, to prevent deaths. Twelve UK projects were awarded funding to complete prototype feasibility research in 2023. In September, seven of these projects were awarded phase 2 funding to further develop and demonstrate their innovations in real world settings. The innovations supported include wearables and sensor technology, novel antidote formulations, and AI enabled applications and tools.
  • Launched the £10 million Addiction Healthcare Goals: Innovation for Treatment and Recovery i4i awards (AMI), delivered with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, to support the creation of innovative medicines and technologies to help treat people with opioid or cocaine addictions and aid in their recovery. Four projects have been awarded funding to conduct 3-year research projects on innovations including virtual reality, assisted psychotherapies, prison release engagement and opioid substitution therapies.

  • Begun a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) with the James Lind Alliance to enable healthcare professionals, those people with experience of addictions or who use alcohol or drugs problematically, carers and families to work together to identify and prioritise the questions for future research that will make the most difference to the lives of people with experience of addiction and their families and carers. The priorities identified will be used to guide future government funding and wider research. In August, the PSP launched its first survey to collate research questions from the community. Following analysis of the responses, the second prioritisation survey will be launched in January.

  • Partnered with Collective Voice to convene voluntary sector drug and alcohol treatment and recovery organisations for a roundtable discussion on the barriers to and facilitators of voluntary sector engagement with research bodies and projects. Collective Voice have published a briefing exploring the outcomes of this discussion to help guide the future work of the Addiction Healthcare Goals.
  • Collaborated with the Mental Health Research Incubator, to offer research placements, internships and development opportunities. Eight addiction researchers are already being supported through the GROW Researcher Development Programme. In addition Addiction services and research groups can apply now for funding to host a 3-month research project (open until 20 January 2025).

Who we are

The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme is Chaired by Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes.

I want to make the UK a place where researchers and innovative companies in addiction can thrive and partner effectively with NHS and 3rd sector treatment delivery services to design, research and deploy novel treatments and technologies which effectively tackle the challenges of drug and alcohol addictions, improving the lives of those affected, and reducing the harms to the individual, their family and friends and wider society.

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes, May 2023.

Anne Lingford-Hughes, Chair of the Addiction Healthcare Goals.

Anne Lingford-Hughes is Professor of Addiction Biology and Head of the Division of Psychiatry at Imperial College London. She is also a Consultant Psychiatrist at Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust and leads the MRC Addiction Research Clinical Training Programme (MARC) with Prof Colin Drummond, Kings College London, and Prof Matt Hickman, University of Bristol.

Professor Lingford-Hughes has contributed to NICE guidance regarding pharmacotherapy of opiate detoxification and alcohol misuse and dependence, co-developed British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines about the pharmacological management of substance misuse and addiction and comorbidity with psychiatric disorders where she held the role of Hon. General Secretary, and has recently held the role of Chair of the Academic Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatry.

Contact details

You can contact the Addiction Healthcare Goals by email: healthcaregoals@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk.

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