Effective partnership working

Our partnership between University Hospital Southampton (UHS) and the University of Southampton provides a strong foundation for world-leading experimental medicine research, while our growing regional and national collaborations help ensure research can benefit patients across the South Coast and beyond.

Working across Wessex

We work closely with partners across the region through a connected Wessex Translation and Innovation Ecosystem that brings together healthcare providers, universities, local authorities and research infrastructure, driving our BRC discoveries into clinical care.

Through our NIHR Wessex Experimental Medicine Network (containing nine NHS Trusts and three universities) and Wessex Health Partners, we support collaborative research, share expertise and strengthen research capacity across the region. This enables more people to take part in research and helps successful innovations reach patients more quickly.

Translational research environment

The NIHR BRC: Southampton is physically and operationally part of the UHS Research and Development (R&D) Department which hosts our infrastructure, including:

UHS R&D oversees clinical and translational research and, in partnership with the University, research support activities including:

Collaborating for impact

Our research partnerships span the South Coast and beyond. These allow us to share specialist expertise, access diverse patient populations and develop innovative research that addresses both local and national healthcare priorities.

We also hold several long-established close collaborations. These include research with the University of Reading, exploring nutrition in early life, and the University of Plymouth/University Hospital Plymouth, developing individualised oxygen/fluid therapy in critical illness. Our microbiology and immunology research is partnered with the UK Health Security Agency and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Porton Down).

We have strong BRC strategic partnerships with the University of Oxford, UCL, Imperial College London, King’s College London, the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol.

Working with industry

We collaborate with partners across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, digital health and medical technology sectors to accelerate the development of new treatments, technologies and healthcare solutions.

Through partnerships with industry and support from innovation programmes across Southampton and Wessex, we help translate research discoveries into products, services and NHS innovations that can improve lives and support economic growth.