Embed, Build, Accelerate – Manchester BRC Director’s blog – August 2026

In this edition, I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our latest NIHR Annual Report, helping to showcase the exceptional work taking place across our BRC.

The 25/26 Annual Report captures a snapshot of the incredible life-changing research delivered over the last 12 months across our partnership. Together, we have demonstrated the impact of research that is transforming patient care, tackling health inequalities, driving innovation and strengthening research capacity across our region.

From digital and AI-embedded diagnostics to community-based screening, earlier diagnosis and world-leading advances in rare disease diagnostics and mental health, the report reflects the breadth and ambition of our research.

In terms of our key performance metrics, we supported 421 projects with 18,363 participants recruited. There were 764 BRC-linked research publications and collectively our teams leveraged an incredible £83.3million of external research funding. We also reported 378 international and 69 new partnerships – all fantastic measures of how we’re successfully building experimental medicine research across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria.

This year, we linked some of our top achievements to the 3 major shifts outlined in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan: Analogue to Digital, Hospital to Home and Sickness to Prevention. Examples included a precision approach use of a web-based guidance system and blood test to tell clinicians when it is safe to stop antibiotics in patients recovering from sepsis and advances in AI which may enable routine eye tests of the future to detect early signs of heart and brain disease long before symptoms appear.

Each report is also accompanied by a series of case studies which showcase the real-world impact of our research. I was delighted to submit excellent examples which ranged from a digitally enabled cardiorenal guidance system, to improving outcomes for babies with hearing loss through community-delivered research and culturally adapted cognitive behavioural therapy for British South Asian women with postnatal depression.

Other strong impacts included improving identification of patients at high risk of late effects from cancer treatment, a new world first gene-therapy for children with a rare, life-limiting condition called Hunter Syndrome and demonstrating the accuracy of a new point-of-care test used in ambulances to enable faster diagnosis of heart attacks.

The submission also included a comprehensive financial and activity return comprising of almost 20,000 data points, brought together by our Data Team with substantial contributions from colleagues across our host and partner organisations. Alongside this, we highlighted our collaborative work across the NIHR infrastructure, with charities and industry partners, as well as our continued investment in academic career development, research inclusion and public involvement. We grew relationships and highlighted the success of a new industry placement scheme with QIAGEN which provided colleagues with hands-on experience and practical skills.

Thank you once again to everyone who helped make this submission such a strong reflection of our collective achievements. In Autumn, we’ll be sharing a highlights summary demonstrating a valuable insight into the scale, reach and impact of what we have achieved together over the past 12 months so please do look out for this when published. Our previous summaries can be found on the Our Impact webpage.

I was also delighted to see 2 Manchester BRC research successes selected for inclusion in the overall NIHR Annual Report 2025/26:

• New hope for families as scientists discover genetic cause of epilepsy (Innovation)
• Late-stage lung cancer cases reduced thanks to community-based screening (Impact)

These patient-centred stories showcase how our NIHR-funded research is changing lives in the UK and beyond. This national recognition (selected following a rigorous review process involving NIHR Directors and Department of Health and Social Care colleagues) is a testament to the quality of research being delivered across our BRC and the dedication of everyone involved.

Introducing our new EDI Leads

Moving on, I would like to welcome our new Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) leads; Dr Sayema Rahman Khan (EDI Operational Lead) and Dr Andrea Murray (EDI Strategic Lead) who will be responsible for driving forward our EDI Strategy to ensure we are delivering against our objectives.

Dr Khan is a Research Project Manager in the Experimental Cancer Medicine Team (ECMT) at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. She is also the founder and chair of the South Asian Women in Higher Education (SAWHE) Network, that connects, supports, and celebrates women of South Asian heritage working or studying at UK universities. You can find out more about the Network following its recent launch event in this blog.

Dr Murray is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Photonics in the Scleroderma and Raynaud’s Research Group based between The University of Manchester (UoM) and Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

Award-winning colleagues

Finally, there have been several awards for colleagues across our BRC recently:

• Dr Alison Branitsky was awarded Postgraduate Researcher of the Year from the Division of Psychology and Mental Health at UoM. Alison manages the EPIC project, which was pump-primed through our Mental Health Theme.
• Dr Meghna Jani, from our Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases Theme, was awarded UoM’s Research Fellow of the Year Award 2026 for funded intermediate fellows within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH).
• Dr Charles Earnshaw, from our Dermatology Theme, was awarded the FBMH Doctoral Academy’s Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award for the School of Medical Sciences.
• Dr John McDermott, NIHR Fellow, was awarded the Daniel Turnberg Cup from UoM, in recognition of his research on the implementation of rapid genetic testing in clinical practice.
• Dr Bruno Simões, was named winner of the 2026 British Association for Cancer Research AstraZeneca Frank Rose Award.
• Professor Gareth Evans was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for outstanding contributions to cancer genetics. Prof Evans led our Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Theme from its inception in 2017 to 2025.

Congratulations to all. And thank you to everyone across our BRC who continues to drive forward scientific discoveries to improve people’s lives and reduce health inequalities through translational and cutting-edge research.

Thank you

Professor Anne Barton

Director of the NIHR BRC: Manchester