NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre

The North West is a vibrant and varied region, rich in community life, heritage, science and culture. It also has one of the highest rates of poverty and ill health in England.

The Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) wants to change this, by bringing cutting edge science into the health service, developing medicine for everyone s benefit.

Our research will: Understand the illnesses most relevant to the population of our region; Find new ways to make correct diagnoses and treat disease; Discover how to prevent ill-health in people, whatever their background or situation.

Working with patients, communities, doctors, academics and many others, we ve identified four priorities for our research: Understanding disease complexity – using a variety of new methods to better diagnose and treat patients; Focusing on inflammation – a process common to conditions of the joints, chest, heart, blood vessels and skin; Finding ways to detect cancer early, tailor treatments to the individual, improve radiotherapy and care for those living with and beyond cancer; Shining a light on sometimes overlooked areas, such as hearing and deafness, mental health and rare genetic conditions.

Our research is only possible with the people who take part in it, and the patients and carers who offer the wisdom of their lived experience to help design it.

The wellbeing of people who connect with research can improve as a result of taking part, discussing or taking an active role in research. But, too many people in our region don t have access to these opportunities.

We want to change this too by actively working with people, patients, carers and communities to listen and improve how we work, to ultimately bring health benefits to everyone.

We will carefully and thoroughly appraise what difference our BRC makes to health, and to the lives of the people we serve. We will broadcast our results far and wide.

Collaborating with scientific teams locally, nationally and internationally, healthcare staff, charities, patients and communities, we will discuss, make sense of, and apply our findings.

This way of working will bring about quick and effective translation of our discoveries into healthcare and create a region with the collective power to carry out and adopt research. Our research will also attract investment, boosting the local economy and creating jobs.

We will go above and beyond to attract and recruit people from all walks of life to our workforce, and give them high-quality training and support during their career with us. We take action to ensure fairness and equality, and actively protect against discrimination in all that we do.

By extending our BRC to include Greater Manchester, Blackpool and Preston, we will ultimately create a clear and positive step change in our region s health and care.