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The SLMS Research Coordination Office works across UCL Faculties to help facilitate the delivery of research strategy, and develop a more integrated, cohesive research environment. Below are some highlights of our work.
BBSRC Doctoral Training Programme
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) developed a new, more strategic approach to PhD training, moving away from supporting smaller Doctoral Training Grants to a single, institution- or multi-institution wide Doctoral Training Programme. UCL led a successful £5.4million bid that will fund 54 students over the next three years, and the programme also involves King's College London, Birkbeck, University of London, the Royal Veterinary College and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Matt Wakelin provided the lead strategic support, working closely with Professor John Carroll (Associate Dean, Division of Biosciences) who was the lead investigator on the application. Matt's role included; preparing a synopsis of the new scheme for discussion by the academic leads on UCL's approach to the funding call; along with John Carroll meeting with potential partner institutions; coordinating the overall application, including collection of data on from the partners; drafting sections of the grant application; leading the development of the internship programme. Since the award of the programme, Matt has overseen the student recruitment process and the development of the cross-institutional memorandum of understanding.
e-Health and the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research
Sarah Welsher's role included coordinating an initial e-Health symposium (140 participants) to bring together the enormously varied community of researchers with an interest in e-health to showcase their work, and exchange expertise, interests and ideas, with a view to establishing future collaborations and strengthening UCL as a research centre for e-Health.
When the call was launched Sarah provided the strategic coordination, working closely with the lead Investigator Professor Harry Hemingway. This involved helping to identify co-investigators and coordinating the application development (including developing a timeline for completing the application, drafting sections of the grant application, coordinating development of the budget, and editing the completed application), developing the business case for UCL's Institutional Commitment, and organising practice interviews.
Since this funding was awarded, Harry Hemingway led a subsequent successful application for £5m capital funding (supported by UCL Platform Technologies) to establish the London Centre of the UK health informatics research institute - The Farr Institute. UCL is also part of a consortium, led by the University of Southampton, that has been awarded £7.6 million to provide academic researchers with access to government data. The UCL aspects of the Administrative Data Research Centre for England (ADRC) were also coordinated by Sarah Welsher. For more information on this Centre read the UCL news story.
In 2011/12 the Medical Research Council led a multi-funder call inviting proposals for centres of excellence in research linking electronic health data. UCL led a successful £4.5m application that brought together 33 researchers from 6 UCL faculties, as well as UCLPartners, LSHTM, Queen Mary University of London, and Public Health England to develop cutting-edge research, deliver innovative linkage and analysis of health-related data sets, build research capacity and expertise and act as an interface with industry, practice and policy.
Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC)
UCLPartners (UCLP) is one of five accredited AHSCs in the UK. Our AHSC harnesses world-class academic and clinical specialty expertise to speed up the development of new treatments, diagnostics and prevention strategies. In doing so, the AHSC plays a pivotal role in fulfilling the mission of UCLP to transform the health of our population and drive economic growth. We were designated in 2009 in recognition of the depth and breadth of our clinical and academic excellence, and in November 2013, following a competitive process, the Department of Health designated UCLP to continue as an AHSC for the five years from 1 April 2014.
The Office of the Vice Provost (Health) project managed and provided strategic coordination for the re-accreditation, which was a team effort involving colleagues from across UCLP, UCL, Queen Mary University of London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres/Units and our partner NHS Trusts. The research coordination team were instrumental in working with Academic Leads and the UCLP Academic Director to develop the bid.
100,000 Genomes Project Pilot Study
Genomics England Ltd (GEL) owned by the Department of Health is committed to sequencing 30,000 rare disease (fewer than 1 in 2000) genomes for the 100K Genome Project. The aim of the project is to increase our understanding of rare diseases, leading to better and earlier diagnosis and personalised care. A pilot study of 2,000 genomes is being run through the NIHR BioResource - Rare Diseases and is recruiting from UCLP, Cambridge, and Newcastle. UCLP investigators have collated over 700 genomes via support from the BRC led Clinical Research Facilities.
Working closely with the lead investigator, Professor Philip Beales, Ruth Jamieson is providing strategic coordination of UCLP's contribution to the pilot study. Ruth's role includes liaising with academic and clinical staff across the Biomedical Research Centres-led Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) at Great Ormond Street, UCLH and Moorfield's to ensure the recruitment and collation of blood samples for the project. Ruth is the main point of contact for UCLP staff and the GEL operations group for non-clinical queries and has been involved in drafting standard operating procedures for sample acquisition; organising sample delivery; providing support to ensure consent, ethics and R&D requirements are met; and providing project updates for BRC Board meetings.