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Expertise Partnering Service

Our free Expertise Partnering Service (EPS) can support you to access expertise, funding, facilities, trial management support, data provision and patients by connecting your company to relevant contacts from the NIHR and wider UK research ecosystem.

It works as a matchmaking service, making your company visible to relevant clinical, care or research expertise to help drive forward your innovation. It provides you with the opportunity to propose questions to the research community about the challenges or considerations you need help to address.

It also supports commercial sponsors to:

  • find patients and the public for feedback
  • find early phase sites for delivery
  • access health data and patient samples
  • find relevant trial participants

This service is most beneficial to companies if you contact us at an early stage in your research, however, we can help find expert collaborators to support you at any stage of your research.

How does the Expertise Partnering Service work?

Begin by contacting our dedicated Industry team to discuss whether the EPS is relevant to your company and evidence generation plans.

You will need to complete a non-confidential Partnering Form outlining information about your innovation and the support you require from prospective collaborators. Wherever possible, you should include non-confidential supporting information such as slide decks and research papers outlining existing evidence. We will identify relevant research sites and expertise from the NIHR and the wider health and social care system and share your submission with them as an opportunity to collaborate.

Interested collaborators will respond with expressions of interest. We will share these with you and arrange an introductory call for you to commence your collaboration.

The service is free and we aim to complete the matchmaking process within two weeks.

Am I eligible for this service?

This service supports life sciences organisations and NHS trusts to find partners and to propel their research forward. We cannot support the marketing of products into the NHS.

Benefits of using this service

  • Efficient: minimises the resources required to find expertise and collaborators
  • Comprehensive: identify collaborators from across the UK health and care ecosystem
  • Fast: receive expressions of interest within 2 weeks
  • Free: Learn why a large range of our support is free

Explore more support from the NIHR

This service is just one of the ways we help life science organisations. Visit our NIHR support for industry page to discover our full range of support or explore all our services and support.

Contact the Industry team

Fill out our contact form to request a chat with our team. We aim to reply as soon as possible and always within two business days.

Contact the Industry team