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This investment will go to four independent research centres funded by UKRI and ESRC to address a variety of important social and economic topics.

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This includes a new centre that will focus on mitigating the effects of, and finding solutions to, the health impacts of the climate crisis.

The other three investments follow on from the work of previous centres. They cover:

• research into peoples’ lives over many years to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities
• how digital technologies are changing work, and the implications for employers, workers, job seekers and governments
• improving UK policymaking by integrating knowledge of history, behavioural science, economics, medical sciences and culture

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Executive Chair, Stian Westlake yesterday said:

Our centres are at the forefront of ground-breaking social science research, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and making a real difference.

By supporting these centres, ESRC ensures long-term investment in crucial areas while giving researchers the freedom to explore and innovate.

Three of these investments build on the work of centres that consistently delivered top-quality research that has positively influenced policy and improved lives.

The wholly new centre will expand ESRC’s research portfolio even further, helping us understand the health effects of climate change.

Climate and health

The new Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions will be based at the University of Exeter.

From biodiversity loss to water scarcity and food supply chain disruption, climate change is having direct and indirect effects on human health, including nutrition, mental health and diseases.

This centre will gather evidence and develop solutions to address the challenges that climate change poses to our health.

New phases

ESRC is also granting funding for three centres that build on the work of previous centres. These are:

• the ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity (Equalise)
• the ESRC Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE III)
• the ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at work (Digit)

These three centres will each receive an equal share of over £23 million.

They address areas of critical importance for a healthy and stable economy and the foundations for equality of opportunity.

Health inequalities

The ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity (Equalise) is led by Professor Yvonne Kelly from University College London and supported by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and associates.

The idea for the new centre has been forged from more than 15 years of impactful research at the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies, which has played a major role in identifying health inequalities.

The new centre’s focus is to find solutions to these clearly identified and well understood inequalities.

The centre is also working in partnership with a team of experts in local and national government and a wide range of advocacy and voluntary groups focused on health equity.

A ‘what works’ approach

CAGE III’s aim is to integrate the study of history and institutions more closely with the ‘what works’ approach to evidence-based policy.

The centre will address topics as diverse as:

• the historical roots of Britain’s economic problems
• the role of social norms in shaping the success of different policies
• the new challenges of the attention economy using a quantitative and interdisciplinary approach

CAGE III will also equip the next generation of researchers and policy practitioners with the knowledge and skills to implement our ideas, through novel training programmes and capacity-building collaborations with local and regional organisations.

The future of work

As new digital technologies and artificial intelligence are more widely adopted, the ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) will study the economic and social impacts on people’s working lives.

Digit will provide insights into the partnerships between government, businesses, trade unions and civil society communities that are necessary to ensure that productivity gains are widely shared and technology is effectively regulated in the emerging digital work ecosystem.

The centre will generate new evidence about how to:

• support healthy working lives
• improve digital skills, literacy and pay
• examine the consequences of digitalisation for job location and the environment

The continued funding of these three centres demonstrates their importance in both understanding our society and finding solutions to the most pressing issues.

Further information

The centres

ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity (Equalise) led by Professor Yvonne Kelly at University College London

The ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity will address the challenge of health inequalities.

The centre will take a life course perspective, which is important because disadvantages can accumulate over time, and there may be particular points when interventions work best.

Bringing together different disciplines, sectors and methods, the centre will develop actionable insights to tackle health inequalities.

To help achieve impact, it will focus on developing close partnerships with communities, third sector organisations and government departments.

This investment builds on 15 years of previous life course research and will use the UK’s large longitudinal data resources.

Partners in the centre include:

• City St George’s, University of London
• University of Glasgow
• University of Strathclyde
• University of Essex
• Toulouse III Paul Sabatier University

ESRC Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE III), led by Professor Mirco Draca at the University of Warwick

CAGE III will improve the effectiveness of evidence-based policy making in the UK by integrating knowledge of history and institutions with policy.

This will take the ‘what-works’ approach to policymaking to a new level by improving it with knowledge around factors that are hard to measure but needed for practical policymaking.

While economics will be a central thread in the centre, it will bring different disciplines such as history and medical sciences together throughout the themes and will test hypotheses using data science in all the themes.

This is the third phase of funding it has received from ESRC.

ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work, led by Professor Jacqueline O’Reilly at the University of Sussex and Professor Mark Stuart at the University of Leeds

The ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) will explore the evolution and governance of the digital work ecosystems that shape the digital transformation of work.

The centre will consider the challenges of navigating a more inclusive digital work ecosystem in the UK.

It will focus on:

• how key actors shape the evolution of an inclusive, healthy and sustainable digital work ecosystem in the UK
• why firms do, or don’t, take up new digital technologies
• how the skills gap at work can be reduced, while increasing levels of digital literacy and improving work rewards
• the impact of digitalisation on a healthy work-life balance
• how job location, regional development and the environment are affected by digitalisation

The centre will collaborate with government, business, trade unions and civil society communities.

Research will be co-produced through Co-Labs to improve knowledge of producing outcomes such as more inclusive governance structures and targeting policy initiatives.

Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions, led by Professor Timothy Taylor at the University of Exeter

The Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions will deliver research on climate change and health that will address climate, environment and health inequalities across the life course.

By partnering with organisations from across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, the centre will work to co-produce net positive solutions.

It will bring in experience from a range of different publics such as age groups and locales, for example coastal communities.

The centre will produce a better evidence base to inform policy, as well as becoming a centre of excellence that can advise on the latest evidence and respond to gaps.

It will also provide training to policymakers to improve understanding of the relationships between health, climate and the environment.