Title: NIHR Imperial BRC
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: The NIHR Imperial BRC harnesses the scientific power of Imperial College London, the only UK University devoted wholly to science, engineering, business and medicine, with Imperial College Healthcare Trust, the UK s largest group of research-intensive hospitals. The aim of our BRC is to translate most rapidly and efficiently our scientific discoveries into the clinic, through our five hospitals, serving a highly ethnically diverse population of 2.3M in North-West London. Our BRC activities are focussed on developing new devices, diagnostics, new therapies and in analysing and integrating health data. The BRC supports the infrastructure to promote and facilitate the flow of research from the bench to the bedside as effectively and efficiently as possible: we have established a fund to translate our research ideas at the earliest stage; laboratory support to finely characterise our patient populations; clinical support to take our concepts into human trials through our Imperial Clinical Trials Unit and support to involve our patients and engage the public with our innovations. As our hospitals have embraced electronic patient records, so we are developing the powerful computer engines to analyse these NHS data, in a safe and protected environment, for direct patient benefit. Our partnership is highly entrepreneurial; since 2013, we have filed 166 patents, translated 51 new products into clinical study in over 2000 patients and involved the creation of 19 commercial University spin-outs with our partner, Imperial Innovations plc. Our BRC has allowed us to leverage over &pound;419M in external funding since January 2013, ten-fold the initial investment in our translation pipeline. We have worked with the whole NIHR architecture and with the pharmaceutical industry to move our science to the clinic and then the population, ensuring implementation of our innovations into practice locally through the Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP; our Academic Health Sciences Network). Our vision is seamless integration of the translational steps in medicine personalised to individual patients; a growing stream of Imperial devices, diagnostics, drugs and integrated data, transitioning through proof-of-concept in our BRC into multicentre trials led by academia or industry, economically evaluated by our Business School, incorporated into guidelines and applied nationally. Our BRC will allow all our clinicians to access College discovery scientists (such as chemists and engineers), articulating research questions of clinical significance to patients and the public. We are training the next generation of medical and non-medical scientists. Our BRC will allow our researchers and trainees to address unmet clinical needs, gaining ready access to clinicians, providing the technical solutions to the new devices, diagnostics, drugs and data analyses. Currently widely distributed across North-West London, Imperial is now building a new campus at White City, immediately adjacent to our experimental medicine centre at the Hammersmith Hospital. Through transferring our discovery scientists to the new Imperial White City campus from South Kensington, we will be using our BRC to bring our discovery science as close to the clinic as possible, further narrowing the gap between research and patient and public benefit.

Lay abstract: The NIHR Imperial BRC harnesses the scientific power of Imperial College London, the only UK University devoted wholly to science, engineering, business and medicine, with Imperial College Healthcare Trust, the UK s largest group of research-intensive hospitals. The aim of our BRC is to translate most rapidly and efficiently our scientific discoveries into the clinic, through our five hospitals, serving a highly ethnically diverse population of 2.3M in North-West London. Our BRC activities are focussed on developing new devices, diagnostics, new therapies and in analysing and integrating health data. The BRC supports the infrastructure to promote and facilitate the flow of research from the bench to the bedside as effectively and efficiently as possible: we have established a fund to translate our research ideas at the earliest stage; laboratory support to finely characterise our patient populations; clinical support to take our concepts into human trials through our Imperial Clinical Trials Unit and support to involve our patients and engage the public with our innovations. As our hospitals have embraced electronic patient records, so we are developing the powerful computer engines to analyse these NHS data, in a safe and protected environment, for direct patient benefit. Our partnership is highly entrepreneurial; since 2013, we have filed 166 patents, translated 51 new products into clinical study in over 2000 patients and involved the creation of 19 commercial University spin-outs with our partner, Imperial Innovations plc. Our BRC has allowed us to leverage over &pound;419M in external funding since January 2013, ten-fold the initial investment in our translation pipeline. We have worked with the whole NIHR architecture and with the pharmaceutical industry to move our science to the clinic and then the population, ensuring implementation of our innovations into practice locally through the Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP; our Academic Health Sciences Network). Our vision is seamless integration of the translational steps in medicine personalised to individual patients; a growing stream of Imperial devices, diagnostics, drugs and integrated data, transitioning through proof-of-concept in our BRC into multicentre trials led by academia or industry, economically evaluated by our Business School, incorporated into guidelines and applied nationally. Our BRC will allow all our clinicians to access College discovery scientists (such as chemists and engineers), articulating research questions of clinical significance to patients and the public. We are training the next generation of medical and non-medical scientists. Our BRC will allow our researchers and trainees to address unmet clinical needs, gaining ready access to clinicians, providing the technical solutions to the new devices, diagnostics, drugs and data analyses. Currently widely distributed across North-West London, Imperial is now building a new campus at White City, immediately adjacent to our experimental medicine centre at the Hammersmith Hospital. Through transferring our discovery scientists to the new Imperial White City campus from South Kensington, we will be using our BRC to bring our discovery science as close to the clinic as possible, further narrowing the gap between research and patient and public benefit.

Research activity codes: 8.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (HEALTH SERVICES)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE