Creating a national Palliative and End-of-Life community where researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and the public work together to shape and improve palliative and end‑of‑life care through knowledge sharing.
The NIHR ARC National Palliative and End-of-life care Forum is co-led by ARC East of England’s Palliative and End-of-Life Care Theme Lead, Professor Morag Farquhar and Co-Theme Lead Dr Ben Bowers. We bring together palliative care researchers, patient and carer representatives, members of the public, and health and care professionals from across England.
The NIHR ARC East of England and the NIHR Palliative Care Incubator are partnering to continue the successful National Palliative and End‑of-Life Care webinar series. The series brings together researchers, health and care professionals, and hospice colleagues to share current and emerging work in palliative and end‑of‑life care research.
Our mission
- We generate, implement and promote collaborative research that improves palliative and end-of-life care, informs national priorities, builds research capacity, and addresses inequalities in access, experiences and outcomes.
- We drive collaborative work across NIHR ARCs to maximise efficiency and impact for patients, the public, health services and economic gain, while fostering partnerships with other NIHR organisations and external stakeholders, including Health Innovation Networks, local authorities, charities, industry, and national health and care bodies.
- We respond to requests from the Department of Health and Social Care and NIHR for expert advice, ensuring that ARC expertise informs national priorities and decision-making.
- Through the national forum, we identify opportunities for national practice impact, enhance research dissemination and knowledge translation, catalyse large-scale implementation, and address national questions that require collaborative action across ARCs.
Our national webinar series
The NIHR ARC Palliative and End-of-life Care National Leadership forum launched a webinar series in 2024 featuring discussions and insights from leading experts. Covering a broad range of palliative and end-of-life care topics, the series aims to improve practice, share learning, support knowledge translation, and encourage further research to enhance care and patient outcomes.
Explore our webinar series by selecting a session from the drop-down menu below:
Watch 'What does a research-active hospice look like? Spotlight on Dorothy House' (June 2026)
Webinar 9: What does a research-active hospice look like? Spotlight on Dorothy House
This webinar was held on Tuesday 16 June 2026. It was chaired by Morag Farquhar, NIHR ARC East of England’s Palliative and End-of-Life Care Theme Lead. It was opened by an introduction from Prof. Candy McCabe, Head of Education and Research Dorothy House Hospice Care. There were discussions from early career researchers from the hospice who shared their journeys into research in hospices.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'Developing inclusive practices around consent and mental capacity in palliative care research' (November 2025)
Webinar 8: Developing inclusive practices around consent and mental capacity in palliative care research
This webinar took place on Tuesday 18 November 2025. The webinar was chaired by Professor Irene Higginson, ARC South London's palliative and end of life care research theme lead, King’s College London, and co-lead of the NIHR ARC Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) National Leadership programme.
It opened with an introduction to the national context around inclusivity in research from Dr Katherine Jeays-Ward, research lead at NHS England. After this, Dr Caroline Barry, University of East Anglia, discussed a recent NHS England Research Engagement Network project to develop more inclusive practices around mental capacity and consent in palliative care research. Dr Victoria Shepherd, Cardiff University, then explored the ethical, legal, and practical challenges around research involving people with impaired capacity to consent.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'Access to palliative and end-of-life care for people with neurodegenerative conditions' (October 2025)
Webinar 7: Access to palliative and end-of-life care for people with neurodegenerative conditions
This webinar took place on Wednesday 29 October 2025. It discussed the issue of palliative and end-of-life care for people with neurodegenerative conditions. It was opened by Professor Morag Farquhar of the University of East Anglia, co-lead of the NIHR ARC Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) National Leadership.
The webinar was chaired by Emily Adams, stakeholder engagement and impact manager at DeNPRU Exeter. Speakers included: Jan Oyebode, professor of dementia care in Applied Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford and deputy director of DeNPRU Exeter, Karen Windle, professor of healthcare research and impact at the University of Ulster and a member of the Leadership Team at DeNPRU Exeter, Catherine Evans, interim director of Cicely Saunders Institute and clinical professor in Palliative Care, King’s College London and honorary nurse consultant, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and Andy Bradshaw, a research fellow at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'Timely access to end of life medication' (September 2025)
Webinar 6: Timely access to end of life medication
This webinar took place on Tuesday 16 September 2025. It discussed the pressing issue of timely access to end-of-life medication. It opened with an introduction from Professor Morag Farquhar of the University of East Anglia and it was chaired by Dr Ben Bowers, University of Cambridge. Speakers included: associate professor Sarah Yardley and senior research fellow Dr Sally-Anne Francis, UCL, Dr Rosanna Fennessy, University of Cambridge and Dr Ikumi Okamoto, University of Edinburgh.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'The health and caregiving experiences of parents of children with a life-limiting condition' (July 2025)
Webinar 5: The health and caregiving experiences of parents of children with a life-limiting condition
The fifth webinar in the series took place on Tuesday 8 July 2025. It explored the health and caregiving experiences of parents of children with life-limiting conditions. It was chaired by Professor Morag Farquhar, University of East Anglia. Speakers included: Julie Russell, an illustrator, teacher, and lived-experience advocate from Essex, Lorna Fraser, professor of palliative care and child health at King's College London and Dr Victoria Fisher, research associate at the Cicely Saunders Institute at King's College London.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'Building capacity in palliative and end of life research' (April 2025)
Webinar 4: Building capacity in palliative and end of life research
The fourth webinar took place on Monday 14 April 2025 exploring the future of palliative care and highlighting the NIHR-supported Incubator, a new initiative to increase research capacity and drive improvements for patients, led by Professors Candy McCabe and Christina Faull. The webinar was chaired by Professor Irene Higginson, and included presentations by Professor Candy McCabe, Professor of Clinical Research and Practice, University of the West of England, Professor Christina Faull, a recently retired consultant in palliative medicine, and Kieran Potts, an academic clinician at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'What can we learn from international research on assisted dying?' (February 2025)
Webinar 3: What can we learn from international research on assisted dying?
A third webinar took place on the 4 February 2025, 10:30am-11:30am, which explored international research on assisted dying. More than 160 people including researchers, policymakers, members of the public and parliamentarians attended the webinar. Chaired by Morag Farquhar, ARC East of England's Palliative and End of Life Care Theme Lead (University of East Anglia), and featured presentations from Professor Nancy Preston (Lancaster University) and Professor Suzanne Ost (Lancaster University) presented their international research on assisted dying.
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'Breathlessness in palliative and end of life care research' (December 2024)
Webinar 2: Breathlessness in palliative and end of life care research
A second webinar took place on the 2 December 2024, 11am-12pm, which focused on the symptom of breathlessness in advanced disease. This webinar was chaired by Dr Amy Gadoud (Lancaster Medical School and the NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Training Lead). Presentations included Matthew Maddocks (King’s College London) and Morag Farquhar, ARC East of England's Palliative and End of Life Care Theme Lead (University of East Anglia).
Watch the webinar below:
Watch 'Recruitment in palliative and end of life care studies' (October 2024)
Webinar 1: Recruitment in palliative and end of life care studies
The first webinar took place on 7 October 2024, 11am-12pm and focused on recruitment in palliative and end-of-life research. It was attended by over 100 delegates and chaired by Professor Morag Farquhar and included presentations by Dr. Amy Gadoud (Lancaster Medical School), Professor Andrew Davies (Trinity College Dublin) and Melanie Waghorn (University College Dublin).
Watch the webinar below:
Get involved
To join the mailing list for the national forum, then please email your interest to the ARC East of England Core team at ARCOffice@cpft.nhs.uk.
