The National Institute for Health and Care Research has awarded more than £5 million to nine UK projects testing AI, virtual reality, and smart home technology in social care settings.

Nine Projects, One Mission: Digitising The Future Of Social Care

At a time when social care in the UK faces mounting pressure, an ageing population, a persistent workforce crisis, and growing demand for community-based support the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has made a pointed investment in digital solutions. Nine research projects, spanning institutions in England, Scotland, and Wales, will share £5,444,562 to explore how technology can improve care delivery, support independence, and reduce strain on overstretched services.

The funding, channelled through the NIHR’s Research Programme for Social Care (RPSC), covers a diverse portfolio of digital health interventions. Projects will run for between 18 months and two years, with the findings expected to generate practical, evidence-based guidance for care providers, commissioners, and local authorities looking to integrate digital tools into frontline services.

From Dementia Support To Learning Disabilities: The Breadth Of Innovation

The scope of the funded projects reflects both the complexity of social care and the versatility of emerging digital technologies. At Cardiff University, three separate projects will explore the use of low-cost smart home technology to help people living with dementia maintain independent living, the application of AI to strengthen evidence use in social work practice, and an evaluation of mainstream smart home devices to support disabled people at home.

Meanwhile, Manchester Metropolitan University will investigate how generative AI can assist people with learning disabilities in navigating daily life, an application area that has attracted considerable interest but limited rigorous research to date. The University of Oxford will examine proactive telecare, exploring how co-evolving systems can better anticipate and respond to the needs of individuals in community settings.

King’s College London’s contribution focuses on virtual reality-assisted communication training for carers working with people experiencing severe mental illness, while the University of Worcester will tackle the often-overlooked issue of noise reduction in care settings for people living with dementia and hearing loss. The University of Stirling, meanwhile, will develop digital frameworks to support post-hospital discharge and reablement services for older adults, a critical pressure point in the interface between health and social care.

The University of Glasgow leads the Embedding Technology in Care Homes (ETECH) project, which aims to provide care home staff and residents with the confidence and practical skills to use digital devices such as tablets effectively in their day-to-day lives.

Building An Evidence Base, Not Just A Business Case

One of the most significant aspects of this funding round is its explicit commitment to evidence generation. The UK care technology sector has no shortage of products promising to improve outcomes, but robust independent research demonstrating real-world efficacy has often lagged behind commercial enthusiasm. This investment begins to address that gap.

Professor Mike Lewis, NIHR scientific director for innovation, underlined the strategic intent behind the funding. “This funding which is aligned with the government’s People at the Heart of Care vision, as well as its mission to move provision of care out of hospitals and into the community will help us build evidence on how digital tools can transform social care and improve lives,” he said. “It reflects the NIHR’s commitment to building capacity in social care research and ensuring technology is harnessed to support independence, enhance quality of life and strengthen the effectiveness of care for adults, children and carers across the UK.”

That reference to the government’s People at the Heart of Care agenda is significant. The strategy has long positioned digital technology as central to reforming adult social care in England, yet implementation has been uneven across local authorities and provider organisations. Rigorous research of this kind can help translate ambition into practical, deployable models.

What This Means For Care Providers And Technology Companies

For care providers, this research programme represents a useful signal about where evidence-based practice is heading. Organisations that have been cautious about adopting AI or smart home technology understandably so, given the limited evidence available until now will benefit from the independent findings these projects generate. The ETECH project at Glasgow, for instance, may produce replicable training frameworks that care homes across the UK can adapt.

For technology companies operating in the UK care sector, the NIHR’s investment validates a direction of travel they have long advocated. Firms developing AI-assisted care planning tools, telecare platforms, and smart home monitoring systems now have the prospect of NHS-affiliated research partners generating the kind of peer-reviewed evidence that commissioners and procurement teams require before committing to large-scale rollouts.

Professor Martin Knapp, director of the NIHR’s RPSC, acknowledged the transformative potential. “By utilising the power of AI, virtual reality, smart home technologies and other tech, these projects offer real hope for supporting independent living and autonomy and improving people’s lives by raising standards of care and support within their communities,” he said.

The Broader Shift Toward Community-Based, Technology-Enabled Care

This funding round does not exist in isolation. It comes at a moment when NHS integrated care systems, local government, and the voluntary sector are all grappling with how to shift care closer to home. Digital health and home care technology sit at the heart of that ambition, offering the prospect of earlier intervention, more personalised support, and better use of limited resources.

The inclusion of generative AI, still a relatively nascent application in social care, is particularly noteworthy. While large language models and AI-assisted tools have attracted significant attention in acute healthcare settings, their potential to support people with learning disabilities, assist social workers in evidencing practice, or augment telecare systems has received comparatively little systematic attention. These projects could help establish what responsible, effective AI deployment looks like in a social care context.

A Step Toward A More Digitally Confident Care Sector

The NIHR’s £5.4m commitment is modest relative to the overall scale of social care expenditure in the UK, but its importance lies not in the sum itself but in the signal it sends. Generating independent, peer-reviewed evidence on digital social care innovation is a prerequisite for the kind of widespread adoption that could genuinely shift the dial on outcomes.

As these nine projects progress over the coming two years, the care technology sector providers, commissioners, policymakers, and innovators will be watching closely. The findings may well shape commissioning priorities, procurement decisions, and care models for years to come.