providing the NHS with the support and facilities it needs for first class research

Biomedical Research Centres

The NIHR has created twelve Biomedical Research Centres within our leading NHS and University partnerships to drive progress on innovation and translational research in biomedicine. By sustaining scientific excellence, the Centres will contribute to the nation's international competitiveness as a major component of our knowledge economy.

The Centres, based within the most outstanding NHS and University partnerships in this country, are leaders in scientific translation. They receive substantial levels of funding to translate fundamental biomedical research into clinical research that benefits patients and they will be early adopters of new insights in technologies, techniques and treatments for improving health.

The Centres were selected through open competition. An international expert selection panel recommended that five Comprehensive and seven Specialist Biomedical Research Centres be established:

"Comprehensive" Biomedical Research Centres

NHS Organisation	Academic Partner
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	University of Cambridge
Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust	King's College London
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust	Imperial College London
Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust	University of Oxford
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	University College London

"Specialist" Biomedical Research Centres

NHS Organisation	Academic Partner	Specialism
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust	UCL Institute of Child Health	Paediatric/Child Health
Central Manchester & Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust	University of Manchester	Genetics and Developmental Medicine
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	UCL Institute of Ophthalmology	Ophthalmology
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust	Newcastle University	Ageing
Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust	University of Liverpool	Microbial Diseases
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust	Institute of Cancer Research	Cancer
South London and Maudsley NHS Trust	KCL Institute of Psychiatry	Mental Health

Funding

Each Biomedical Research Centre is awarded funding on a five year cycle.

The first funding cycle began in April 2007. The total funding allocated for Biomedical Research Centres is £50m during the first year of operation (to allow for start-up costs) and £100m per year for the following 4 years (£450m over 5 years). The amount awarded to each centre has been determined by the scale and nature of the research activity that it conducts and the anticipated impact of that activity. The awards have been made to the NHS partner, and can only be used to support the recurrent costs of patient focused research.

Selection Process

The Biomedical Research Centres were selected through open competition, in a two stage process, by an independent international Selection Panel with substantial experience in translational clinical research.

To ensure independence, and to provide the necessary international perspective on the standing of the partnerships and their proposals, none of the members of the Selection Panel work in England. The Panel also included observers from HEFCE and MRC to ensure the views of two of our key funding partners were taken into account.

Calls for expression of interest were released in April 2006 with a deadline of 3 May 2006 for pre-qualifying questionnaires. All NHS providers in England in collaboration with academic partners were eligible to apply. An international expert Selection Panel reviewed the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaires, identified a shortlist of the partnerships with the most substantial portfolios of truly world-class biomedical research, and invited these to submit full applications by the 13 October 2006 deadline.

The short-listed partnerships were interviewed (and in the case of applicants for Comprehensive Research Centres, site visited) by the Selection Panel during the period 27-30 November 2006. The Selection Panel applied the criteria outlined in the guidance document, NIHR Biomedical Research Centres - Invitation to Submit Full Application in making their recommendations.

For more information please read the Department of Health press release .

Biomedical Research Centre - Selection Panel (PDF, 77K)