SOLVE (Stratification of Osteoarthritis to Promote Living Well and Treatment Effectiveness)

Start date: 1 May 2026
End date: 1 May 2031
Funder: Arthritis UK
Value: £3 million
Partners and collaborators: Keele University, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Leeds, University of Aberdeen, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, University of Southampton
Primary investigator: Professor Philip Conaghan
Co-investigators: Dr Sarah Kingsbury, Dr Marlous Hall
External co-investigators: Professor Melanie Holden; Dr Elizabeth Curtis; Professor Cosimo De Bari; Professor Krysia Dziedzic; Ms Lynne Guzha; Professor Nicholas Harvey; Dr Rosemary Hollick; Professor Clare Jinks; Mr Zeyd Kateregga; Mr Alex Liddle; Professor John McBeth; Professor Caroline Mitchell; Dr Philippa Nicolson; Dr Emma Parry; Dr Thomas Perry; Dr Anke Roelofs; Dr Subhashisa Swain; Professor Ana Valdes; Professor Tonia Vincent; Dr Fiona Watt; Dr Dahai Yu; Professor Weiya Zhang
Project managers: Jo Rimmer

A person rising from an armchair, supporting themselves with one hand on the chair and the other on their knee

Description

Our Stratification of Osteoarthritis to promote LiVing well and treatment Effectiveness (SOLVE) Consortium aims to tackle the important problem of lack of effective treatments for osteoarthritis. We believe that understanding different types of osteoarthritis will be key to developing targeted treatments to help people live well at all stages of the condition.

Osteoarthritis is very common, causing joint pain and disability for millions of people. Its impact is growing rapidly due to ageing, increasingly obese populations. Few effective treatments exist. Medicines may not work well or cause side-effects. Access to non-drug options like exercise and weight management is limited, and people struggle to stick with them. Osteoarthritis is a complex condition, and we don’t know how biological, social, and life-course factors influence who develops it, who worsens more quickly, and who benefits most from different treatments. Many trials have failed using a simple, one-size-fits-all approach, without recognising osteoarthritis complexity or differences between individuals.

SOLVE will focus on identifying different types (“subgroups”) of osteoarthritis to better match treatments to individuals. We will apply cutting-edge science to both existing and new data collections, from tissue samples to interviews, from people with or at risk of osteoarthritis. Inclusive public and community involvement will be central to our work.

Our team includes scientists, healthcare professionals, and people with lived experience of osteoarthritis. We share a common goal with Arthritis UK: to improve treatment and quality-of-life for people with osteoarthritis. A diverse group of experts outside of the study team, including healthcare professionals and people with lived experience (called a Community of Practice), will guide the research to ensure real-world impact.

Our work

We will work across four key themes:

Stratification for improved therapeutic response: We will use advanced scientific methods to study biological samples and modern medical scans. This includes analysing thousands of molecules and using computer technology to spot patterns in thousands of joint images. These methods will help identify different types of osteoarthritis, identify new molecules to target with therapies, and match people to the treatments most likely to help.
Stratification by life course events: We will focus on two key life events that raise the risk of osteoarthritis and may result in different subgroups: joint injuries and menopause.
Stratification by mechanism and risk prediction: We will identify people likely to experience faster progression of osteoarthritis (towards important life events like joint replacement) and explore factors, such as other health conditions, that may contribute. This will help us develop a tool for NHS healthcare professionals to assess risk and offer the right care at the right time.
Stratification for exercise: We will explore how social factors like income, education, or where someone lives affect people’s ability to access, stick with, and benefit from exercise – the core osteoarthritis treatment. This will help us co-design inclusive, tailored exercise programmes with patients to meet the needs of different groups.

Our research will support more personalised care, helping people live well with osteoarthritis at every stage. We will share findings widely with the public and across communities.