Health researchers in Bradford can look forward to a double boost after being awarded twin grants worth almost £1.5m, further securing the city’s role at the national forefront of vital medical studies and clinical trials and its reputation as a City of Research.
The Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR), part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has won £1.3m in government funding to cover the cost of expanding clinical research space at Bradford Royal Infirmary.
The new modular building will incorporate flexible clinic research space for outpatient and day case studies, larger lab facilities, a phlebotomy room, and a pharmacy.
Meanwhile, the same team is also celebrating securing a separate £190,000 grant to purchase a mobile research vehicle (MRV) – the first dedicated one in Yorkshire and Humber.
The vehicle will allow researchers to access a more diverse range of participants to a growing number of NHS-led studies and trials. It is hoped this wider reach will also ensure health research opportunities are open to everyone in all corners of the community.
In May this year, it was confirmed Bradford had already leapfrogged centres like London and Cambridge to lead the UK in health-related research for the first time, with a record 25,000 Bradfordians registered in the previous 12 months to take part in over 80 live studies.
The new facilities at Bradford Royal Infirmary will further enhance the city’s research capacity, with the potential to double clinical research participation, especially among ethnic minorities and socially deprived patients.
Additional benefits include:
- The expansion of commercial research partnerships and trials in vaccines, genetics, neurodegenerative diseases, and other areas.
- The acceleration of flagship programmes like Born in Bradford’s 60,000-person inter-generational cohort.
- An increase in the number of National Institute for Health and Care Research portfolio studies.
- More collaboration with university partners in advanced clinical profiling and discovery science.
“Our current facilities are based in a converted Victorian stable block – dark, cramped and overcrowded. The lack of space has created a major rate limiting step in our offer of world-class research to seldom heard communities,” said Director of BIHR, Professor John Wright.
“New clinical research space will allow us to dramatically expand research participation and scientific programmes to transform health locally and globally. Our patients and staff deserve expanded, modern research facilities and the modular extension will enable this.”
Additionally it is hoped the new electric mobile research vehicle will help boost figures and promote health research further thanks to a visible presence at venues and events such as festivals, charity events, concerts, sports centres, places of worship, shopping centres and supermarkets.
The vehicle will also help researchers cement and forge relationships with under-represented communities which can sometimes be more difficult in a clinical environment.
“We know from our community-based research that attending hospitals or clinical sites can be a major barrier to research participation and retention,” said Prof Wright.
“This is due to lack of time, resources and motivation, geographical constraints and intimidation by healthcare settings.
“Our MRV will open its doors directly into communities, providing geographical and logistical convenience and flexibility to deliver decentralised and research-ready activities in a wide-variety of settings such as youth clubs, schools, GP premises and community centres across the region.”
The MRV will initially be used to deliver the following studies:
- The Wellcome-funded BIB’s Age of Wonder study (https://borninbradford.nhs.uk/what-we-do/cohort-studies/age-of-wonder/) capturing the journey through adolescence and adulthood to create a detailed picture of every aspect of what it’s like to grow up in Bradford. The MRV will support recruitment, measurement and biosample collection from 30,000 young people every year for the next six years going around 38 secondary schools.
- Bradford Genes and Health study (www.genesandhealth.org) which aims to learn how genes vary in adult Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities to better understand why heart disease, diabetes and strokes occur in higher levels in these groups. Bradford has a target of 20,000 participants and recruitment will be conducted in community settings.
Funded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Bradford Hospitals Charity, the new vehicle will be managed by the BIHR team.
Prof Wright added: “With research pathways increasingly cutting across organisational boundaries and being delivered in a wide variety of settings with more focus in community settings, the infrastructure that supports research delivery needs to adapt to reflect this reality.
“We therefore envisage the MRV will also be used by multiple organisations and partners to deliver NIHR portfolio research optimising its use to provide a novel approach to increasing research capacity and capability.
“We anticipate the use of the MRV will continually increase and be sustainable as the benefits of being able to deliver and promote research in such a flexible, innovative and inclusive way are realised.”