About M-RIC What is M-RIC?
In 2023, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool teamed up to create the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC). Our groundbreaking research facility is based in Liverpool and aims to improve future mental health services and treatments.
We are one of two key demonstrator sites in the NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration Mental Health Mission (NIHR MH-TRC MHM). We have been awarded £10.5 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Office for Life Sciences to create a bold and ambitious ‘learning system’ where care is continuously improved the more treatments are used, studied and refined.
What does M-RIC do?
We bring together academic researchers, healthcare providers, service users, carers and industry to develop and evaluate new treatments and deliver innovative services.
This includes trialling new drugs and new uses of existing drugs. It also involves researching digital therapies such as apps and artificial intelligence for delivering virtual talking therapies and new ways to support mental wellbeing.
We aim to improve mental healthcare by shortening the time it takes to translate research into real benefits for our local communities.
Why Liverpool?
From the UK’s first Medical Officer of Health, William Henry Duncan, to the first x-ray department in the country at Liverpool’s Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool has a rich history of pioneering developments in public health. M-RIC is a chance to continue this legacy.
Liverpool also has one of the UK’s highest levels of social and economic disadvantage and poor mental health. Mental health service users in Liverpool live on average 20 years less than those in the rest of the UK. Despite this, there has been little mental health research in areas like Liverpool, which need it most.
M-RIC is working to tackle this inequality head on. The award of £10.5m provides a landmark opportunity to ensure that people from Liverpool City region can access mental health research and innovative, high-quality care.
Leading the UK in mental health innovation
One in four people will be affected by a mental illness at some point in their life, yet up to recently, UK public funding for mental health research has been just one twenty-fifth of that spent on cancer for each person affected.
M-RIC has been funded to bridge this gap. Our unique partnership uses the expertise of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and University of Liverpool staff together with the invaluable insights of service users and carers who are able to access, co-create and benefit from mental health research through M-RIC. We are also supported by the third sector, industry partners, civic leaders, local government and other public services in order to help more people gain access to better mental healthcare and support.
We hope that our new approach offers a blueprint for developing a network of similar centres throughout the UK.