A major new health research department is being formed in a joint venture involving five of the country’s top medical research centres and hospitals, it has been announced.
The academic health science partnership – to be known as UCL Partners – is aimed at delivering real improvements in patient healthcare in London and around the world. With a combined annual turnover of around BGP 2 billion, the new department aims to support more than 3,500 scientists, senior researchers and consultants.
UCL Partners, which together treat more than 1.5 million patients every year, will comprise University College London (UCL), UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Royal Free Hampstead.
By pooling resources and expertise, the partnership aims to produce more world-class research in key areas, including cancer and heart disease, and deliver the benefits more rapidly to patients. It will focus initially on ten areas of research: the nervous system, children’s health, heart disease, transplantation, immunology, ophthalmology, deafness and hearing impairment, dental and oral disease, cancer and women’s health.
Malcolm Grant, President and Provost of UCL, said the creation of the partnership was “a landmark in the history of medical research in the UK”.
Copyright PA Business 2008
