North Yorkshire Council is building a dedicated research team to ensure every policy decision—from housing to transport to social care—is backed by solid evidence, not just tradition or guesswork. The problem is stark: the newly merged council serves a vast, rural population with deep health inequalities, yet its workforce has limited experience using research to guide spending and strategy. Without this shift, scarce public money risks being wasted on programmes that sound good but do not work. The collaboration with the Universities of Hull and York will train council staff, embed research champions in every directorate, and create systems to co-design studies with local communities—especially underserved groups. If successful, the council will become a centre of excellence that other local authorities can learn from. The impact is practical: more efficient use of taxpayer funds, policies that actually improve health outcomes, and a reduction in the gap between the healthiest and least healthy residents across North Yorkshire. This is not fundamental science; it is an infrastructure project for smarter government.
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HDRC VISION: To embed a strong research culture across NYC, that generates robust evidence to inform strategy and influence decision making, ensuring more efficient use of resources to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities BACKGROUND: On 1st April 2023, North Yorkshire Council (NYC) was formed from North Yorkshire County Council and seven district/borough councils, presenting a unique opportunity to build on research activities across the new Council. NYC recognises that their workforce needs to be more research active and strengthen their capacity, capability, and confidence to apply evidence-based decision-making to address local health inequalities. Collaboration and strategic alignment between NYC and the Universities of Hull and York will achieve transformational change in NYC’s use of research and will improve health equity HDRC AIM: To become a Council leading in research excellence, that is highly effective in using and generating evidence to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities across North Yorkshire (NY) HDRC OBJECTIVES: Culture change: Fostering and delivering a Council-wide culture that is curious and creative in how it utilises research and seeks evidence-based approaches to inform decision making Capacity & capability: Building the confidence and competence of NYC staff to utilise, engage and excel in research activity, with support from academic research expertise and resource Collaborations & co-production: Creating and developing collaborative research partnerships both internally and externally, including public engagement to prioritise, co-design and co-produce our research, and extending to underserved communities Champions of excellent research: Becoming catalysts for change driven by strong, committed and highly motivated leadership, to embed research into strategic and policy development Communication: Developing and delivering high-quality processes to facilitate knowledge exchange, effective dissemination and impact of research outputs to a range of audiences locally, regionally and nationally KEY DELIVERABLES-We will have a team of research staff supporting the delivery of four work packages (WPs) with Research Leads and Research Champions embedded within our directorates. Our WPs are Infrastructure & Governance, Capacity & Capability, Dissemination & Impact, Learning & Evaluation COLLABORATIONS-We are committed to building a strong collaborative ethos for our HDRC. Our strong collaboration between NYC, the Universities of Hull and York and partners throughout the region will be supported by our Research Development Forum and the proposed Engagement Hub. This will facilitate strong partnership working with NY residents and colleagues within the developing local research ecosystem. DELIVERY TIMELINE-The HDRC will have a delivery plan with key milestones. The 1st year will focus on mobilisation underpinned by appointing key members of staff and implementing data and governance system. ANTICIPATED IMPACT AND DISSEMINATION–The HDRC will foster a research culture that extends beyond NYC, benefiting the wider economy, population and environment. We will create a Centre of Excellence driving evidence-based actions and policies to promote long, healthy, and independent lives for all residents and reduce health inequalities. We will maximise the use of existing networks to develop relationships and facilitate knowledge exchange, enabling shared learning and encourage innovation.
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