NIHR capital award will provide more cutting-edge research equipment in Leicester

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has been awarded £4.7 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) for capital projects to support high-quality research across its NIHR infrastructure, which includes the Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).  

The investment in cutting-edge research equipment will support ground-breaking research already taking place in Leicester, for the benefit of patients and the wider community.   

The funding will cover state-of-the-art equipment such as CT and hyperpolarized Xenon MRI scanners, and a mass spectrometer to analyse chemicals in samples taken from patients and volunteers.   

Director of the NIHR Leicester BRC, Professor Melanie Davies, said: “We’re thrilled to receive this funding. It will be a massive boost to our researchers, giving them, and our research participants, access to more state-of-the-art equipment.   

“The funds will also allow us to create additional high quality facilities to conduct our research, which will ultimately lead to better treatments for people living with long term conditions.”  

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “From Devon to Liverpool, we’re giving NHS organisations over £96 million to bolster vital health and care research.  

“Scientists and medical experts will be able to purchase cutting-edge equipment like mobile CT scanners, imaging devices and ultrasound equipment to help their ground-breaking work in the prevention, treatment and management of disease.   

“The NHS and its staff have now served us for nearly 75 years and as we celebrate that achievement, we want to make sure the health service is leading the way. This investment will also help the NHS continue to cut waiting lists – one of the government’s top five priorities.”    

Leicester is a beacon for research into ethnic health, health inequalities and multiple long term health conditions (MLTCs).  

The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration, which is based at the Leicester Diabetes Centre at Leicester General Hospital and hosted by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, was awarded £1.5 million to invest in resources to support culturally-appropriate research with ethnic and other under-served communities.  

This includes an international linguistics laboratory that supports simultaneous translation into up to 80 languages, and a culturally-sensitive kitchen.   

For more information, please visit www.leicesterbrc.nihr.ac.uk