Our research partnerships

We work in partnership with Imperial College AHSC, NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and host the NIHR Clinical Research Network for North West London.

We’re an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC)

We’re part of Imperial College AHSC. This is a partnership between our NHS Trust, Imperial College London, Royal Brompton & Harefield Foundation NHS Trust and the Royal Marsden Foundation NHS Trust. Together, our mission is to advance medicine and improve the quality of life of NHS patients, and patients around the world. We aim to take the discoveries we make through our research and put them into practice in healthcare as quickly as possible by introducing new therapies and techniques. This is done through the co-ordination and alignment of patient care, education and research activities across the AHSC partners.

Imperial College AHSC was the first AHSC to be established in the UK in 2007 with the founding partners of our Trust and Imperial College London. In June 2016 it was announced that the AHSC would expand to include the two new partner NHS Trusts.

The AHSC  works closely with Imperial College Health Partners, which brings together the academic and health science communities across the broader North West London region.

We are one of 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs)

The NIHR Imperial BRC received a £95 million investment to develop and improve care for patients. The programme focuses on developing and moving potential new treatments and techniques, discovered in laboratories at Imperial College London, into NHS clinics for the first time to improve patient care.

The NIHR Imperial BRC was first established in 2007 and is the fourth largest in the country. The programme supports a diverse range of specialties, including surgery and technology, infection and anti-microbial resistance, cancer and haematology, cardiovascular, obesity and diabetes, brain sciences, gut health and immunology. These specialties are supported by world-class experimental medicine infrastructure, including biobanks and bioresources, MRI and PET imaging, genetic sequencing, molecular profiling, and informatics.

Read more about the NIHR Imperial BRC

We host the NIHR Clinical Research Network for North West London

The National Institute of Health Research Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN) is responsible for coordinating the growth of clinical research activity nationally and for encouraging more NHS patients to take part in high quality studies, both commercial and non-commercial. Our Trust hosts the NIHR CRN in North West London and is one of 15 local networks. As the host, we are responsible for making sure patients are aware of the opportunities offered by all the trusts in our region to take part in research, and for providing funding to support these activities.

The NIHR CRN benefits healthcare professionals who want to conduct research by supporting them to set up studies quickly and efficiently. It operates a ‘portfolio’ of high quality research studies that are eligible for financial and practical support from the NIHR. Portfolio studies receive support to recruit participants, and employ staff to deliver the studies, such as specialist research nurses.