The BMJ summarises the strategy as "making the NHS an internationally recognised centre of excellence for research and development with stronger and more streamlined governance and developing the clinical research work-force" and its two "most notable features[...as]the proposal to centralise funding and the plan to control research through the establishment of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and a new clinical research network for England". For more details see:
BMJ article
Text of the strategy (PDF)
Goal 4 in the document is "to manage our knowledge resources" and sets as objectives to "create a unified knowledge management system to meet the needs of stakeholders; [to] use information systems to harmonise and simplify research processes; [to] ensure research knowledge is made readily available to professionals in the service, researchers and the public; [and to]facilitate the application of research outcomes to improve health and delivery of services". The document says nothing explicitly about the role of libraries or other repositories of knowledge, but it implies to me that there's a great deal for us to do to support research.
