A year of growth, innovation and partnership
Following a year in which Birmingham Health Partners organisations won more than £70m of research investments from NIHR and other funders, signed a strategic partnership with ABHI, and launched its BHP People reward and recognition scheme – we’re pleased to publish our fourth annual review of activity for the period September 2024-August 2025.
In their foreword, Professors Lorraine Harper (Managing Director) and Neil Hanley (Executive Director), said:
“The past 12 months have been exceptionally busy across Birmingham Health Partners. Our flagship Reducing Bureaucracy in Clinical Trials theme has gone from strength to strength and is complemented by the fantastic news we received in December – the success of our bid to lead one of the new NIHR Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDCs), which aim to expand access to clinical trials to some of the country’s most underserved communities.
“In June, we welcomed colleagues from the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) to Birmingham, where we signed up to a landmark strategic partnership focused on improving clinical outcomes, addressing health inequalities, and ensuring that health technologies are scalable and relevant to population health. We look forward to continuing collaborations with ABHI and its members.
“June also saw the opening of the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA), the University of Birmingham’s flagship research facility and anchor tenants at the new Birmingham Health Innovation Campus. This represents a golden opportunity for BHP researchers to commercialise innovations, provide consultancy to SMEs, and collaborate across the ecosystem.
“Significant progress has also been made with our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) theme, which brings together the excellent work of our individual member organisations and provides a comprehensive suite of resources to help enhance our collective PPIE practice to ensure the patient voice is not only heard, but helps to shape and direct research.
“As ever, we are immensely proud of the achievements of all our member organisations, some of which are captured in our case study round-up which represent a mix of initiatives directly convened by BHP, and examples of exceptional innovation and collaboration from across the partnership.
“The efforts of every individual involved in research continue to benefit patients, whether it is through improving cancer outcomes, enhancing mental health research, tackling inflammation and chronic disease, or improving maternal and perinatal health across our community.
“Finally, we extend our sincere thanks to our outgoing chair, Jonathan Pearson, for his guidance over the past two years. His leadership has been clear, and always centred on what matters – people. We are delighted that Jonathan will remain a key figure in BHP through his new appointment as Chair of Health Innovation West Midlands, which will no doubt benefit from his expertise.”