UBH’s integration with the University of Birmingham, via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) and Birmingham Health Partners, supports translational research excellence. The Trust is a key node in the UK’s Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) ecosystem, being part of the Midlands-Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (MW-ATTC), having both the clinical delivery capacity and the informatics/ manufacturing linkages needed for cell and gene therapy trials. 

UHB has one of the largest transplant and cellular therapy programmes in the UK. With HTA (Human Tissue Authority) and JACIE (Joint Accreditation Committee of ISCT & EBMT) licences and certification, UHB demonstrates strong regulatory and quality governance. Moreover, its experience covers both commercial and academic ATMP trials, making it a flexible and attractive partner for industry and academic sponsors alike.

UHB is a Foundation Trust and is the second largest NHS trust in the UK. We have 4 hospitals: Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital, Solihull Hospital, and additional community sites based in and around Birmingham. We treat over 2.2 million patients each year, with more than 2,700 beds across its sites, and covers an economically and ethnically diverse patient population.

The Trust has a dedicated Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) department which supports clinicians and researchers with funding applications, costing, governance, ethics, and patient & public involvement. You can read more about it here.

Its comprehensive clinical support services contribute to planning and delivery of research, including monitoring the safety of patients, storing and dispensing trial drugs and ensuring data is recorded accurately. UHB has dedicated research delivery teams within most disease areas, totalling over 300 staff.

Clinical laboratories (haematology, microbiology, pathology, biochemistry) with Clinical Pathology Accreditation (CPA) accreditation, support both diagnostic and research work. The pharmacy clinical trials service at UHB has extensive experience in gene and cellular therapies, plus novel chemotherapeutic agents, working with many industry sponsors and companies for translational research. Find out more about our clinical support services here.

For more than a decade UHB has been a leader in the effective use of health data to improve quality of care through efficient evaluation of services, audit, research and innovation. UHB has been exceptionally well-placed to do this as it built its own electronic systems, which has been supporting front-line care for more than 20 years. This means that all routinely collected healthcare data ranging from blood pressure measurements to blood test results to imaging to health outcomes are stored within integrated UHB-held systems, facilitating secure in-house analyses. Find out more about our use of health data here.

The NIHR / Welcome Trust CRF is hosted across UHB (adult) and Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital. Within the CRF, there are multiple-purpose rooms (outpatient clinic rooms, day-case, inpatient beds) as well as specialist areas (metabolic studies, endoscopy, isolation rooms). The CRF laboratory has class II labs, flow cytometry, CO₂ incubators, hoods, and ultra-low-temperature freezers (−80 °C) for sample processing and storage. In 2023, the CRF received a £4 million from NIHR to enhance its capacity, especially for cell and gene therapy work (e.g. isolators for ATMP preparation. Find out more about the The NIHR / Welcome Trust CRF here.

In addition, UHB hosts the Medical Devices Testing & Evaluation Centre (MD-TEC), which includes simulation infrastructure (replica theatres, ICU, wards) within the Institute for Translational Medicine. 

Through Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), UHB collaborates with the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Trust, Sandwell & West Birmingham, and other academic institutions. BHP’s work to optimise academic trials and reduce bureaucracy has extended into supporting the delivery of commercial trials through the (NIHR) funded Central and North West Midlands (C&NWM) Commercial Research Delivery Centre. In addition, UHB staff are leading the Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) Network which will provide strategic coordination of all 21 CRDCs across the UK. It will play a key role in building research capacity, streamlining the interface between industry and the UK clinical trials delivery infrastructure, and enhancing efficiency to deliver commercial clinical research through harmonised processes.

The NIHR Birmingham BRC is another major partnership between UHB and the University of Birmingham complementing other non-commercial partners including the Ministry of Defence, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Health Data Research UK, Scar Free Foundation and the Medical Research Centre (MRC). The LifeArc Centre for Acceleration of Rare Disease Trials (ARDT) is another example of collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Newcastle, and Queen’s Belfast, which aims to boost the capacity and efficiency of rare disease trials across the UK by creating a national trial platform and streamlining processes.

UHB also hosts the Centre for Rare Diseases; a (Supra) Regional integrated multi-speciality, multi-disciplinary centre of excellence for care of patients with Rare Diseases. In addition to disease specific centres including: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Hub site, a Comprehensive Care Haemophilia Centre and West Midlands Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre.