The University of Oxford and local NHS partners have won £126.5 million to support medical research.
The money, from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), includes £113.7 million for the existing University of Oxford/Oxford University Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and £12.8 million for a new Biomedical Research Centre specialising in mental health and dementia, run by the University and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
The National Institute for Health Research, which is funded through the Department for Health, today announced that the two Oxford BRCs were among 20 NHS and University partnerships throughout England to receive a total of £816 million for 2017 to 2022 following a competitive bidding process.
NIHR BRCs bring together expertise within the NHS and leading research organisations to turn latest discoveries into fundamentally new treatments for patients.
Since being established in 2007 more than £150m had already been invested by NIHR to tackle major healthcare challenges, including many clinical studies involving patients at Oxford hospitals including the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.
The two Oxford BRCs will work closely together, and with the Oxford Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), to develop innovations in areas such as working with ‘big data’, personalised medicine and tackling problems linked to dementia and multiple long-term conditions.
Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University and Chairman of the Oxford AHSC, said: “The award of NIHR funding to Oxford’s BRCs is a great refection of the strengths of the Oxford AHSC partners, and will enable us to work together to address major healthcare challenges in areas such as chronic diseases, dementia and digital health.”