Prof Frances Mair to co-lead new UK-wide cardiovascular disease consortium
Published: 3 March 2026
Researchers from across the UK will come together to form a ground-breaking new consortium focused on tackling inequalities in cardiovascular disease.
The NIHR is investing £50m into supporting a new Cardiovascular Disease Inequalities Challenge Consortium.
CVD contributes to a quarter of all deaths in the UK (26%), more than 170,000 deaths annually, but does not affect everyone equally. Higher risk groups include ethnic minority communities and people living in deprived communities.
The NIHR Cardiovascular Disease Inequalities Challenge Consortium, in partnership with the British Heart Foundation and co-led by Professor Frances Mair, will focus on tackling inequalities in these higher risk groups. The consortium will also seek to address inequalities in CVD outcomes between women and men.
Nine UK universities have been selected to lead the consortium, which is a national partnership bringing together leading experts from across the UK.
Professor Frances Mair, the Norie Miller Professor of General Practice, has been appointed the consortium Co-lead for Research, while several other University of Glasgow researchers will play important roles.
The University of Glasgow Consortium team include Professors Christian Delles, Paul Welsh, Sara Macdonald, Petra Meier and Qammer Abbasi, alongside Dr Bhautesh Jani and Kezia Dugdale. The interdisciplinary team from Glasgow includes clinical experts, as well as expertise in cardiovascular disease risk, data analysis, health tech and public health and policy.
The consortium will have a major focus on developing research capacity to help shift the dial on CVD. They will work together to develop an innovative and diverse programme of career development opportunities to inspire, develop and support the next generation of researchers. This equips them with the right skills and expertise to work across clinical, practice and research sectors.
The research projects will begin in autumn 2026. The consortium will build relationships with charities, the life sciences industry and patient groups with relevant expertise, focusing on hypertension and high levels of bad cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) to deliver a plan that will have solutions to tackle health inequalities in the UK.
Professor Frances Mair said: “I'm delighted to have been appointed Research Co-lead for this Consortium that brings together expertise from across the UK with a shared ambition to move beyond business as usual, embedding equity into cardiovascular prevention and care, and delivering practical solutions that improve cardiovascular health for the communities who need them most.”
First published: 3 March 2026
<< News