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Addiction Healthcare Goals

Updated 5 June 2025

What we do

The health and wider societal costs to society in England of illegal drug use is approximately £20 billion per year, with the harms from alcohol use estimated to cost over £27 billion. Since 2012 the number of drug-related deaths has more than doubled, and there are now approximately 5,000 UK deaths annually due to drug misuse. In addition, there are over 10,000 annual UK deaths from alcohol a figure which has been rising since 2019. Over 300,000 people are addicted to heroin and crack cocaine alone in England with 600,000 dependent on alcohol. The capacity of the treatment system has been increasing recently but is currently still insufficient to meet the need for alcohol support.

The Addiction Healthcare Goals, (announced as part of the UK바카라 사이트™s Drug Strategy: From Harm to Hope), launched in November 2022 and delivered as one of the Office for Life Sciences바카라 사이트™ Healthcare Goals programmes, is aiming to help reduce this cost by enhancing the UK-wide research environment and incentivising the development of innovative and effective new treatments, technologies and approaches to support recovery, and reduce the harm and deaths addiction can cause.

The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme is delivering on two key areas:

바카라 사이트¢ Unleashing Innovation: award funding to catalyse development and approval of innovations that effectively treat drug & alcohol addictions바카라 사이트‹, improve and sustain recovery, and prevent harm and deaths from problematic drug & alcohol use바카라 사이트‹.

바카라 사이트¢ Creating a Pioneering Drug and Alcohol Research Ecosystem: create a pioneering, UK-wide capability within Third Sector and NHS treatment providers, the criminal justice system, and community settings to evaluate, trial, and deploy all types of drug & alcohol addiction treatments and technologies.

Addiction Healthcare Goals Research Ecosystem: catalysing innovative addiction research across the UK.

To date the programme has:

• Launched the £5 million Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation Challenge in partnership with the Scottish government to catalyse the development of innovations to improve detection of, response to, and intervention in potentially fatal drug overdoses, to prevent deaths. Twelve UK projects were awarded funding to complete prototype feasibility research in 2023. In September, seven of these projects were awarded phase 2 funding to further develop and demonstrate their innovations in real world settings. The innovations supported include wearables and sensor technology, novel antidote formulations, and AI enabled applications and tools.
• Launched the , delivered with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, to support the creation of innovative medicines and technologies to help treat people with opioid or cocaine addictions and aid in their recovery. Four projects have been awarded funding to conduct 3-year research projects on innovations including virtual reality, assisted psychotherapies, prison release engagement and opioid substitution therapies.

• Conducted a (PSP) with the James Lind Alliance (JLA) to enable healthcare professionals, those people with experience of addictions or who use alcohol or drugs problematically, carers and families to work together to identify and prioritise the questions for future research that will make the most difference to the lives of people with experience of addiction and their families and carers. Following two surveys and a workshop of people with lived experience, carers, families and healthcare professionals to prioritise the communities research questions, a Top 10 list of key unanswered research questions has been identified. These priorities have been published on the JLA website and will be used to guide future government funding and wider research.

• Partnered with Collective Voice to convene voluntary sector drug and alcohol treatment and recovery organisations for two roundtable discussions on the barriers to, and facilitators of, voluntary sector engagement with research and on improving research career opportunities. Read the recent Collective Voice blog and report which followed the research careers roundtable . The earlier briefing which followed the research engagement roundtable can be found . These reports and ongoing engagement with this sector is helping to guide the future work of the Addiction Healthcare Goals.
• Collaborated with the Mental Health Research Incubator, to offer . Eight addiction researchers were supported through the 2024 GROW Researcher Development Programme and the 2025 GROW programme is again open to applications from the addiction field. In addition, the Incubator is providing funding to support 3-month research projects within addiction services and research groups.
• Partnered with the NIHR Innovation Observatory to conduct an horizon scan, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of emerging global innovations in MedTech, pharmaceuticals, and psychedelics for the treatment and recovery from drug and alcohol addictions. This report, which includes insights from ongoing research studies and clinical trials, has now been .
• Launched an with Innovate UK to support 3-month partnership projects between researchers, industry and treatment providers. 90% grants of up to £35,000 are available for projects focused on questions linked to making improvements to drug and alcohol addiction treatment, recovery and harm reduction or prevention. The £2m scheme opens to applications on 12 May 2025, with an anticipated close on 2 July 2025.  

Who we are

The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme is Chaired by .

I want to make the UK a place where researchers and innovative companies in addiction can thrive and partner effectively with NHS and 3rd sector treatment delivery services to design, research and deploy novel treatments and technologies which effectively tackle the challenges of drug and alcohol addictions, improving the lives of those affected, and reducing the harms to the individual, their family and friends and wider society.

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes, May 2023.

Anne Lingford-Hughes, Chair of the Addiction Healthcare Goals.

Anne Lingford-Hughes is Professor of Addiction Biology at the Division of Psychiatry at Imperial College London. She is also a Consultant Psychiatrist at Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust and leads the MRC Addiction Research Clinical Training Programme (MARC) with Prof Colin Drummond, Kings College London, and Prof Matt Hickman, University of Bristol.

Professor Lingford-Hughes has contributed to NICE guidance regarding pharmacotherapy of opiate detoxification and alcohol misuse and dependence, co-developed British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines about the pharmacological management of substance misuse and addiction and comorbidity with psychiatric disorders where she held the role of Hon. General Secretary, and has recently held the role of Chair of the Academic Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatry.

Further information and relevant links

• From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives.

• 바카라 사이트 to use Vaccine Taskforce model to tackle health challenges.

• Chancellor reveals life sciences growth package to fire up economy.

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• £5 million fund to tackle fatal drug deaths across the UK.

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• Virtual reality and wearable technology pilot to cut drug deaths.

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Contact details

You can contact the Addiction Healthcare Goals by email: healthcaregoals@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk.