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Addiction Mission

Updated 16 October 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 increased by 80%, and there are now approximately 4500 UK deaths annually due to drug misuse. In addition there are over 9600 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 and the capacity of the treatment system is currently insufficient to meet the need for support.

The Addiction Mission, announced as part of the UK’s Drug Strategy: From Harm to Hope, and delivered as one of the Office for Life Sciences Healthcare Missions, 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 Mission.

The Addiction Mission 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 Mission Research Ecosystem: catalysing innovative addiction research across the UK

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

To date the mission 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. This is a 2-phase competition which invited applicants to apply for funding for either feasibility, or demonstration stage development projects for technologies to improve detection of, response to, or intervention in potentially fatal drug overdoses. Twelve UK projects have been awarded an initial share of £5 million in funding to begin the development of innovative new technologies, such as AI and wearable alert and response systems.
  • Launched the £10 million Addiction Mission: 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.
  • Begun a Priority Setting Partnership 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.
  • Appointed Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes as the Addiction Mission Chair.

Who we are

The Addiction Mission 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 Addiction Mission Chair.

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 Mission by email: healthcaremissions@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk.

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