What we do

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) prevents, prepares for and responds to infectious diseases and environmental, radiological and chemical hazards, to keep all our communities safe, save lives and protect livelihoods. We provide scientific and operational leadership, working with local, national and international partners to protect the public’s health and build the nation’s health security capability. UKHSA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Science and Research

Science and research are at the core of our mission to protect health from infectious disease and environmental hazards. To succeed at tackling the major challenges that we face including new and emerging infections of high consequence or pandemic potential, climate change, air pollution and antibiotic resistance, we need to strengthen our scientific capabilities and the impact from our scientific work.

Science strategy

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) 10-year Science Strategy outlines the scientific assets, capabilities and ambitions of UKHSA, and our plan to protect the nation’s health from current and future health threats.

The Science Strategy shares our vision of how, through science, we will secure health and prosperity. It describes how we can develop our current scientific disciplines and infrastructures to meet the current and future health threats both nationally and globally.

UKHSA protects our communities from infectious diseases and the impact of chemical, radiological and other environmental health hazards. Our work depends on generating and applying the best scientific evidence.

Read UKHSA's Science Strategy

Science Strategy Ambitions

Through investment in scientific workforce and deeper partnerships with industry and academia, the strategy sets out UKHSA’s ambitions to:

Predict and anticipate health threats, through investing in genomics, data science and surveillance, including disease vector (such as mosquitoes and ticks) surveillance.
Create a more secure environment, by enhancing our understanding of the threats in the environment and building scientific defences against these hazards.
Reduce and eliminate health threats, by strengthening the scientific evidence underpinning health protection programmes – at home and abroad.
Act on the scientific evidence, translating data, knowledge and insights into practical actions.
Unlock the potential of scientific assets, and securing the legacy from the pandemic to increase the impact of our science on health and economic prosperity strengthening vaccine and diagnostic development and evaluation and data science.

UK Health Security Agency's research annual review

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) research annual review will include information about strategy, funding, impact and peer reviewed publications.

Read PHE's annual reviews