Ygam Is Key Partner Across Four UKRI Initiatives: Statutory Levy Research Allocation
Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (Ygam) has been announced as a named partner across four specialized research projects backed by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Research Programme on Gambling. Funded via the UK’s newly established statutory Gambling Levy, the multi-million-pound initiatives are engineered to deepen the academic evidence base surrounding gambling-related harms.
Under the statutory framework, 20% of the annual levy budget is reserved for independent scientific research, translating to a £22.1 million allocation for the 2025/26 fiscal cycle. The select projects form part of the broader Gambling Harms Research UK (GHR-UK) Evidence Centre, an initiative overseen by UKRI following a direct appointment by the government to manage the levy’s research pipeline. The overarching program currently funds 19 Innovation Partnerships designed to unite higher education institutions, third-sector groups, digital safety networks, and lived-experience advisory boards.
Structural Analysis of the Four Collaborative Projects
The four specific Innovation Partnerships featuring Ygam participation are structured as follows:
1. INTEGRATE: Intersectional Gambling Harm Research and Targeted Interventions for Emerging Adults
- Core Partners: University of Birmingham, Ygam, Al-Hurraya, and Community Connexions.
- Operational Scope: This project examines how gambling-induced harm compounds across children, young people, and emerging adults possessing overlapping identities and intersectional socio-economic backgrounds. The team will audit legacy intervention structures and issue localized policy recommendations to form more inclusive, community-tailored preventative education networks.
2. From Evidence to Action: Safeguarding Neurodivergent Young People in Gamified Digital Environments
- Core Partners: Bournemouth University, Ygam, and Work’n’Diversity CIC.
- Operational Scope: This track isolates the unique, gambling-adjacent risks that neurodivergent youth face when interacting within heavily gamified digital landscapes. By collecting and mapping risk-and-resilience feedback loops from impacted families, youth representatives, and frontline professionals, the project will build baseline support blueprints for an traditionally under-researched consumer sector.
3. GRASP: Gambling Related Harm: Systems for Prevention and Recovery
- Core Partners: University of Plymouth, NatCen, Public Health Plymouth, Devon ICB, Primary Care Gambling Service, Gambling Harm UK, Ygam, BetKnowMore, Gordon Moody, ARA Recovery for All, and GLEN.
- Operational Scope: GRASP is engineered to track the systemic lifecycle of how gambling harms originate and ripple through modern public environments. The extensive partner network will map active healthcare and community support pathways, isolate structural gaps in existing clinical and social care provisions, and recommend unified remediation plans to optimize early intervention models.
4. GRACE-Net: Gambling Resilience and Community Engagement Network
- Core Partners: Lancaster University, Liverpool John Moores University, Lancashire County Council, Liverpool City Council, Blackpool Council, NHS Greater Manchester Mental Health, NHS Lancashire & South Cumbria, Ygam, Empowerment Charity, Beacon Counselling Trust, Battling The Odds, and RedCard.
- Operational Scope: Operating out of the North West of England—identified as one of the UK’s highest-harm regions—GRACE-Net links public sector services and grassroots community hubs to stress-test coordinated prevention networks. The regional matrix is designed to function as an active geographic testbed, paving the way for a verified national model for localized recovery and protection programs.
Executive and Academic Commentary
Emily Tofield, Chief Executive of Ygam, emphasized the importance of translating academic data into scalable frontline educational models:
“A defining strength of our approach is that it is grounded in robust insight and research, underpinning everything we do. This enables us to understand how and why harms emerge and translate that into practical, preventative education that is credible and scalable.”
Dr Janine Maddison, Research & Insight Manager at Ygam, highlighted the focus on prioritizing historically overlooked demographics:
“What makes these collaborations so powerful is the people behind them – the youth voice, lived experiences and communities that are too often overlooked in research. By ensuring that children, young people and people with lived experience are involved throughout the research process, we can turn insight into action.”
Dr Constantina Panourgia of Bournemouth University noted the necessity of crossing traditional professional lines to counter emerging digital vulnerabilities:
“Through this partnership with Ygam, we will develop a shared understanding of how gamified digital environments shape vulnerability and resilience among neurodivergent young people. Ygam’s expertise in engaging young people and translating evidence into practice makes them an invaluable partner.”
Compliance Posture and Macro-Regulatory Analysis
From a strict regulatory and modern compliance standpoint, the launch of these levy-funded Innovation Partnerships under UKRI management signals a structural shift in how gambling harm data is collected and used. In GC’s assessment, the historical reliance on voluntary research contributions frequently introduced corporate governance concerns regarding funding independence and transparency. Transitioning to a centralized, mandatory statutory levy model effectively isolates research capital from commercial influence, guaranteeing that resulting policy recommendations carry full academic and legal legitimacy.
For B2C gaming operators and B2B software suppliers, the data emerging from these intersectional and digital-landscape studies will directly shape future technical compliance demands. As researchers dissect the risk elements embedded within gamified digital environments—such as loot boxes, social casino tokens, and high-frequency slot-style mechanics, regulators will likely implement tighter controls on game design, software verification, and player onboarding paths.
Consequently, maintaining a proactive compliance posture requires operators to continually track these emerging research findings. Aligning platform engineering with proven harm-prevention insights will remain a core prerequisite for protecting licensing assets and ensuring long-term operational sustainability across heavily audited international jurisdictions.
