The GGC Research and Innovation (R&I) region, also referred to as NHS Research Scotland (NRS) West Node, covers the NHS GGC, NHS National Waiting Times, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Dumfries and Galloway areas. It is managed by the R&I office in GGC. The West Node leads on the IT infrastructure for NRS by hosting the Scottish Research Management Database (SReDa) and the National Databases Coordinator.

The NHS GGC and the University of Glasgow have a long-standing and close collaboration in clinical research. This collaboration is overseen by the Glasgow Health Science Partnership (GHSP) which ensures oversight and appropriate delegation of responsibilities between the two organisations. GHSP supports clinical research by bringing together world-leading clinical academics and state-of-the-art facilities with access to the West of Scotland NHS patient base of 2.8 million (52% of the Scottish population).

Facilities include Western Europe’s largest acute hospital (the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital), one of Europe’s largest cancer centres (the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre), the largest non-commercial diagnostics laboratory in Europe and a plethora of world-leading research laboratories within the University of Glasgow and the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Scotland Institute (formerly the CRUK Beatson Institute of Cancer Research).

The Experimental Cancer Medicines Centre (ECMC) provides a unique infrastructure linking the world-leading early phase drug development programme with the NHS biorepository and analytical laboratories in Glasgow and elsewhere in the UK ECMC network.

The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow is also based on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus and has 244 paediatric beds and the neonatal unit for the Royal Hospital for Children and the Queen Elizabeth University Maternity Unit. The hospital provides a large number of specialist services to the West of Scotland and the wider population of Scotland in addition to the full range of secondary care services to people of GGC. Specialist services include: cardiology and cardiac surgery, renal and bone marrow transplantation. For a number of these services, the children’s hospital is recognised as the sole provider in Scotland.

The Haemopoietic Transplant and Cellular Therapy service (HTCTS) is located in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow co-located with all medical specialities and a large comprehensive ICU. The service comprises the 24 bedded clinical ward, the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) accredited stem cell laboratory and cryostore as well as the SNBTS cell collection facility. The service is fully JACIE (Joint Accreditation Committee of ISCT & EBMT) certified for Autologous, and Allogeneic Stem Cell transplant and for the administration of Immune Effector Cell (IEC) Therapies.

The HTCTS provides allogeneic stem cell transplant services for the population of Scotland and is an experienced cell therapy centre, having delivered in excess of 120 licensed and investigational chimeric antigen receptor- T (CAR-T) cells treatments since 2019. The HTCTS is a leading research and investigational cellular Advanced Therapy Investigational Medicinal Products (ATiMP) centre, one of 8 fully funded IMPACT clinical trials acceleration centres in the UK and has a dedicated and experienced cellular therapy research team with the expertise to deliver complex cellular therapy trials safely and efficiently.  

GGC supports our researchers and partners throughout the clinical research process with a range of services designed to ensure scientific integrity, fast approvals, effective governance, proactive project management and robust data management and reporting processes. The GGC support function also includes developing a ‘fit for purpose’ translational research infrastructure within the NHS. The partnership’s research expertise includes world-class strength in Cancer; Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences; Infection, Immunity and Inflammation; Neuroscience and Psychology; Paediatric Medicine; Social Sciences and Health Economics. GGC has state-of-the-art research imaging capabilities including CT, 3T MRI and has been strengthened with the addition of a 7T MRI scanner. 

Find out more about research and development here.

NHS GGC has experience delivering a range of Advanced Therapy Trials, including those trialling gene therapies (Class 1 and 2), Phase 1 (first in human) and cellular therapies (phase 1 -3) e.g. Investigational CAR-T cell therapy in haemato-oncological and non-malignant indications, Tumour Infiltrating Lymphocyte studies and trials of other cellular therapy types.

NHS GGC and University of Glasgow are currently co-sponsoring an ATiMP clinical trial of a Gene Therapy (Class 1) in a Phase 1 (first in human) trial.

Genetically Modified (GM) Safety Committee.

Phase 1 First in Human Committee.