State of health services research In 2002, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust jointly commissioned a review of health services research in the United Kingdom.1 The aim was to examine how independent grant funders in health could enhance the contribution of health services research to improving services and policy making and to learn from the role of charitable foundations in other countries. Research for the review, conducted during January to August 2003, included interviews with 35 senior UK health services researchers, health service managers, policy makers, or research commissioners. It also included an analysis of case studies and a review of successful initiatives in the United States and Canada. The research showed that everyone involved with health services research is dissatisfied to some extent with the current research process, albeit from different perspectives (box 1). Improved hospital environments, such as this award-winning design (the new medical campus of the Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust), are one result of the application of health services research Box 1: Perspectives on problem of health services research Researchers are frustrated that their work isn't used more widely by policy makers and managers and feel that the knowledge they generate is undervalued and poorly applied NHS managers see little of relevance in the research available to them and view health services research as poor value for money Policy makers are concerned about the timeliness of research: to be useful to them it has to be available when political decisions are being taken All groups feel an urgent need to reconnect the funders, users, and providers of research Footnotes Funding The production of the report which informed this article was jointly funded by the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust. Contributors and sources PD is an independent health services consultant who has worked in the health services as a clinician and in policy roles. NG has a particular interest in evidence based policy formation. In 2000 she coauthored, with Anna Coote, Evidence and public health: towards a common framework, published by the King's Fund. MT is seconded to the Health Foundation from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has written extensively about evidence based healthcare and nursing research policy. Competing interests PD works as a paid advisor for several organisations and companies associated with health care, including the NHS, private healthcare providers, consulting companies, and pharmaceutical companies.