The partnerships involve 24 universities across England and Wales, five NHS trusts, four councils, and five charities and non-profit organisations. They are working across a wide range of integrated care system regions.

Each WRP is made up of a multidisciplinary team. The teams draw expertise from a range of backgrounds, including human resources, labour economics, work and wellbeing, management science and organisational psychology.

Teams will conduct high-quality research into key questions on how best to deploy and support staff across health and social care. The research will explore new ways to keep NHS and social care workforces healthy. This will enable them to stay in and return to work themselves, in turn benefiting the people they care for.

The research will focus on a range of staff roles, including GPs, health and social care workers and allied health professionals. In addition, staff that aren't often the focus of research, including non-clinical and support staff, disabled staff, and staff from ethnic minority groups.

There will also be a focus on staff working in coastal and rural areas and services provided in geographical areas of disadvantage and deprivation.

WRPs will design their research in response to the needs of key NHS and care stakeholders, including integrated care systems.

The partnerships, which will run for five years, will share data, learning and skills at a national level.

Professor Lucy Chappell, NIHR chief executive and chief scientific adviser at the Department for Health and Social Care, said: ‘Staff are the backbone of our health and care system. The NIHR is stepping up to fund high-quality research to understand our workforce needs better.

'These new landmark research partnerships will generate crucial new research across a range of projects to help improve the quality, organisation and retention of teams, which will in turn improve the quality of care they provide.'

Karin Smyth, minister of state for health, added: ‘As we work to rebuild our broken NHS, it is essential we better understand the skills, expertise and aspirations of our amazing health and care workforce.

‘That means making the most of their talents and deploying them where they can be most effective. It also means ensuring the work is enjoyable, meaningful and their wellbeing prioritised in what is, so often, a high-pressured environment.

‘The valuable research generated by these partnerships will help us retain and nurture more staff, turn the tide on recruitment challenges, and deliver even more high-quality health and care to communities throughout England.'

The partnerships are funded by NIHR's Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme.