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Pain: Research

Asked by Rachel GilmourLiberal DemocratDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 4 March 2026UIN 116069

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level of funding allocated for research into chronic pain disorders.

Answered by Dr Zubir Ahmed

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) including research into chronic pain disorders. Between 2020/21 and 2024/25, the NIHR invested £39.4 million in direct research funding in this area. Further information on that research can be seen at the following link:

https://nihr.opendatasoft.com/pages/homepage/

The NIHR provides an online service called Be Part of Research, which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest. At the current time, there are 41 studies actively recruiting for participants on many aspects of chronic pain. Further information is available at the following link:

https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/results/search-results?query=chronic%20pain&location=

The NIHR’s infrastructure also provides support for the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry, including many aspects of chronic pain. Further information is available at the following link:

https://nihr.opendatasoft.com/explore/dataset/nihr-infrastructure-supported-projects/table/?q=Chronic+Pain&disjunctive.centre&disjunctive.pi_full_name&disjunctive.research_theme&disjunctive.financial_year&disjunctive.infrastructure_scheme

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