Research and Innovation

Welcome to the Research and Innovation Department of the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

'First Class Research and Innovation for the benefit of our patients'

Our Vision

The Research and Innovation Department will play a central and strategic role in establishing NUH as the leading acute teaching Trust provider in the UK by 2016. At the core of this vision is the fostering of a culture in which research and innovation are embedded in routine clinical practice and the creation of an environment in which research findings lead to sustained improvements in the quality of patient care.

The transformation of Health Research in the past five years

In recent years there have been dramatic and systematic changes in the structure and funding of research in the NHS.

Best Research for Best Health (2006) established the National Institute of Heath Research (NIHR) to provide and manage a framework for coordinated investment in new research capacity in the NHS. At the core of this initiative was the creation of a stratified system of topic specific networks, the comprehensive local research networks (CLRNs). These provide for infrastructure support for high quality clinical research throughout the NHS, and the replacement of the historical ‘portfolio’ funding of R&D in Trusts with a series of response mode funding schemes. The Trent CLRN is hosted by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and provides support for 15 NHS Trusts in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. In addition to this core national infrastructure, the NIHR established a small group of elite Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) and Units (BRUs) as the NIHR vehicle for experimental and translational medicine.

The BRUs were established in specific disease areas in response to the Cooksey Review of UK Heath Research Funding (2006), which emphasised gaps both in the translation of ideas from basic research into new intervention for the treatment of disease, and lack of a national strategy to align research in the NHS with the health needs of the nation. Cooksey also identified a second translational gap in the national capacity to implement new products and approaches in clinical practice, which led to the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) awards.