HSC R&D Division acts as a contact point for any industry wishing to engage in research with the Health and Social Care Sector in Northern Ireland.
HSC R&D Division works closely with the HSC Trusts and Universities in Northern Ireland as well as the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry NI (ABPI) and InvestNI.
Please direct all general correspondence to: HSC R&D Division
CAPABILITY MAP
This 'clickable' diagram shows the Capability for Life & Health Sciences Research in NI.
Open the diagram (by clicking on the image); then access information and websites of the different parts of the infrastructure by clicking on each label.
MATRIX
MATRIX, the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel, is a business led expert panel, formed primarily to advise government, industry and academia on the commercial exploitation of R&D and science and technology in Northern Ireland.
MATRIX is helping to champion the role of science and technology as one of the key drivers of economic growth in Northern Ireland, looking forward to what technologies can be exploited over the next 5 to 10 years.
The MATRIX Life & Health Sciences Capability and Foresight Report, launched in 2015, provides a breakdown of Northern Ireland Life and Health Capability and suggests that there is a significant opportunity to grow Northern Ireland’s economy and address increasing health requirements if businesses, government and universities worked together more closely.
To download a copy of the report go to:
http://matrixni.org/matrix-launches-second-life-health-sciences-foresight-report/
CLINICAL INNOVATION COLLABORATIVE
Following an Industry Event in 2014 hosted by a partnership of HSC R&D Division, ABPI NI Innovation Group, HSC Innovations, Queen's University, Ulster University and InvestNI and attended by scientific and medical personnel from a number of global pharmaceutical companies, it was agreed that an Clinical Innovation Collaborative should be established in NI.
The aim of the collaborative is to bring together key stakeholders involved in research related to HSC in order to drive forward industry sponsored clinical research in Northern Ireland. In particular the forum will include representation from each of the organisations listed above but also an Industry link and a number of leading clinical researchers in NI.
A further industry event - Clinical Innovation Conference was held in 2016 with the theme of "Precision Medicine"
For more information please contact Dr Julie McCarroll, Programme Manager, HSC R&D Division
TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS
The NIHR Translational Research Partnerships (TRPs) bring together expert investigators from leading academic and NHS centres to support collaboration with the life sciences industry. They create a unique life sciences industry resource to drive collaborative translational research in defined therapeutic areas, address unmet medical needs and take on the challenges of an evolving drug, device and diagnostic development model.
HSC R&D Division provides funding to support TRPs which have investigators in Northern Ireland (NI)
For example, the Inflammatory Respiratory Disease TRP, includes a partnership between Queen’s University Belfast, Centre for Experimental Research and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust working with biopharmaceutical, device and diagnostic companies to drive research in the early and exploratory development of new respiratory drugs and other interventions in order to translate advances in laboratory and experimental research into improved lung health for individuals and the population as a whole.
This has provided significant opportunities to work with pharmaceutical companies and for HSC service users to participate in clinical trials (in asthma, allergy, COPD, respiratory infection). Expertise in technology is available for clinical trial and biomarker assessment which are major enabling technologies for early phase clinical trials, undertaken with a local contact research organisation (Celerion), who provide the context for healthy volunteer and early patient studies in collaboration with researchers who can provide leading academic facilities.
This is supported in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust through the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network (also funded by HSC R&D Division), which allows the efficient effective delivery of clinical trials bridging from phase II and phase III and has established Belfast as one of the most active and dynamic clinical trial sites in cystic fibrosis. In part, the TRP activity has been instrumental in the recent success of this team in securing a major €50m EU award under the Innovative Medicines Initiative.
For more information please visit:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/partners-and-industry/industry/run-your-study-in-the-nhs/
NI COMPANY DIRECTORY
Invest NI provide a company directory on Northern Ireland’s Life Science and Connected Health Sectors.
Click on the images below to go to the Invest NI Website:
Life Sciences Sector Connected Health Sector
