For Industry
Our industry partnerships are built on 3 unique strengths that set the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): Manchester apart.
The NIHR BRC: Manchester brings together internationally recognised clinical and academic leaders across our 13 research Themes, spanning cancer, inflammatory conditions, mental health, rare diseases, hearing health, respiratory and cardiovascular medicine, and advanced diagnostics and therapeutics.
Working with us gives industry partners access to:
- Global experts shaping national and international guidelines
- Cutting-edge experimental medicine platforms, including next generation diagnostics, advanced imaging, digital phenotyping, and novel therapeutics
- Clinician scientists embedded in NHS care pathways, ensuring rapid translation and real-world validation
- Integrated academic capabilities, including data science, bioinformatics, omics, and biomedical engineering
- Our scientific leadership is matched by a strong track record of co-developing and delivering industry sponsored and collaborative research that leads to real clinical impact.
Greater Manchester offers one of the UK’s most connected and innovation-ready ecosystems, incorporating a £1.5bn Innovation District and Europe’s largest clinical-academic campus.
The NIHR BRC: Manchester is hosted by Manchester University NHS Trust and The University of Manchester – in partnership with 5 NHS trusts across the North West region. This allows us to translate scientific discoveries into new treatments, diagnostic tests, and medical technologies to improve people’s lives and reduce health inequalities in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria.
We make partnering with the NIHR BRC: Manchester simple by providing:
A dedicated team for industry engagement
Co-ordinated by our Innovation and Partnerships Team, who connect companies with the right investigators, infrastructure, and trial platforms.
Agile, responsive, and transparent ways of working
Our partners benefit from feasibility testing, commercial trials, and real-world evidence generation.
A connected ecosystem of enabling organisations, including:
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
- The University of Manchester
- Connected NIHR infrastructure in Manchester, including:
- NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF): Manchester
- NIHR HealthTech Research Centre (HRC): Emergency and Acute Care
- NIHR Applied Research Collaboration: Greater Manchester (ARC-GM)
- NIHR North West Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN)
- NIHR Policy Research Unit in Healthy Ageing
- NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Systems and Commissioning
- NIHR Commercial Research Delivery Centre: Greater Manchester (CRDC:GM)
- Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (Manchester)
- CityLabs and Manchester Science Park
- Health Innovation Manchester
This environment allows companies and researchers to develop, evaluate, and progress innovations towards adoption, licensing, scale-up or commercialisation where appropriate – transforming discoveries into real world solutions.
Our region is home to one of the most culturally, socioeconomically, and clinically diverse populations in the UK, providing an outstanding opportunity to generate evidence that reflects real world need.
Working with the NIHR BRC: Manchester gives industry partners:
- Access to diverse patient cohorts, supporting representative research and accelerating regulatory confidence.
- Opportunities to work collaboratively with Vocal, with access to nationally leading expertise in community engagement and Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement and Participation (PPIEP) groups, ensuring that research reflects patient priorities and lived experience.
- Direct engagement with our partner Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations, enabling inclusive recruitment and community-centred innovation.
- Expertise in embedding equality, diversity and inclusion into all stages of research design and delivery, led by our Inclusive Research Oversight Board.
Our approach ensures innovations work for more people in more places, reducing health inequalities and improving uptake across the NHS.
Industry enquiry form (opens in new window)
If you have an enquiry, please complete our industry enquiry form. We will ensure you are connected with the right clinical, academic, commercialisation or infrastructure route across the Manchester innovation ecosystem.
How we can work together
Whether you are a global company, SME, or a start-up, we can help you:
- Access world-class expertise and infrastructure
- Co-develop experimental medicine and translational research
- Unlock new data, insights and regulatory-ready advice
- Build meaningful partnerships with NHS clinicians, researchers, and diverse communities
- Transform ideas into products that improve lives and reduce inequalities
Examples of impact through industry partnerships
Approximately 1 in 500 babies carry a gene change that causes permanent deafness when given gentamicin, an antibiotic used to treat and prevent infection in babies in neonatal units.
Manchester researchers, working with a diagnostic company, genedrive plc, and supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Manchester, developed the world’s first rapid bedside genetic test, allowing doctors to give at risk babies an alternative effective antibiotic within the recommended one-hour timeframe. From a simple cheek swab a genetic result was generated in 26 minutes by neonatal nurses.
In 2020, the team trialled the test in a study called Pharmacogenetics to Avoid Loss of Hearing (PALOH) in over 750 babies in neonatal units in Manchester and Liverpool without delays to treatment. Importantly the test was acceptable to parents.
In April 2022, the test was introduced into three hospitals and now 3,500 babies have been tested. In March 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended its use within the NHS, and it is now being used for babies across England and internationally.
Every year the test could save the hearing of 180 babies in England alone, and save the NHS at least £5 million, by preventing hearing loss and reducing the need for interventions such as cochlear implants.
Chronic coughing is estimated to affect 4-10 % of the UK population and significantly impacts quality of life. The development of effective therapies has been hampered by the lack of reliable tools for measuring cough.
With industrial partner Vitalograph, researchers from the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre developed the first accurate system to objectively measure coughing. Testing, validation and implementation was carried out by the NIHR Clinical Research Facility: Manchester.
The VitaloJAK monitor allows semi-automated counting of the number of coughs in digital recordings over 24-hour periods. It is the only cough monitor to be used in global regulatory drug trials.
To date, the system has provided measurement of cough in 51 trials, with more than 20 million coughs counted.
The monitor was instrumental in the development of Gefapixant, the first therapy to be licensed for patients suffering from refractory chronic cough in the UK and European Union in 2023.
Frank Keane, CEO of Vitalograph, said: “Studies of new therapies to treat chronic cough were previously hindered by a lack of tools to measure cough and VitaloJAK was developed to overcome this by collecting highly accurate objective cough data. The positive outcome of this study is great news and demonstrates the value of including cough monitoring in therapeutic research to help realise new treatments for patients.”
Read this news story to find out how the cough monitor has been used in a research study.
Working closely with clinicians and public contributors gave us insights into practical challenges and acceptability that we could never achieve in isolation.
Dr Fernando Osorio, Pharmanovia (collaborators on the RAD-PIT study)
Spotlight On: Innovation and Partnerships
Learn about the benefits of collaborating with us.
Our culture of innovation
We are building an open, visible, connected culture of innovation across all NIHR BRC: Manchester Themes. Our approach includes:
- Our Innovator Training Scheme, offering researchers an invaluable opportunity to build their understanding of the importance of innovation and partnership, guiding them through the process and nurturing future generations of health and care innovators.
- Regular innovation blogs highlighting emerging opportunities and success stories.
- Active social media engagement, reaching clinicians, academics and science companies.
- Themed drop-in sessions where industry and researchers can meet investigators, discuss ideas, and explore opportunities to work together.
Our goal is to ensure innovation and partnerships are at the heart of BRC activity and are seen as essential routes to impact.
