Partners

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is an arm of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) which brings together the UK’s seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England. The MRC is responsible for co-coordinating and funding high-impact medical research and training in the United Kingdom. Research funded by the MRC has produced 32 Nobel Prize winners to date.

The heart of the MRC’s mission is to improve human health through world-class medical research. This is achieved through the support of research across the biomedical spectrum, from fundamental lab-based science to clinical trials in all major disease areas. The MRC works closely with the NHS and UK health departments to deliver their mission and prioritise research that is likely to make a real difference to clinical practice and the health of the population which underpins the MRC’s decision to fund the UK CARDIO-IMID Partnership.

The MRC’s mission is to:

• Encourage and support research to improve human health
• Produce skilled researchers
• Advance and disseminate knowledge and technology to improve the quality of life and economic competitiveness of the UK
• Promote dialogue with the public about medical research

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a registered cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. The BHF is the UK’s largest independent funder and authority in cardiovascular research, education, and care spending ~£100 million per year funding innovative research around the UK. The BHF is currently funding over 1000 research projects.

Since its inception in 1961, the annual number of deaths from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK has fallen by around half and the UK death rate from heart and circulatory diseases has declined by over three quarters. The BHF aims to continue this trend through funding the UK CARDIO-IMID Partnership, seeking to develop novel therapies and treatment strategies in the underserved CARDIO-IMID population.

The NIHR-British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Partnership provides a platform for collaboration between researchers funded by the NIHR and British Heart Foundation (BHF). The Partnership connects world-leading research expertise and infrastructure funded by NIHR and BHF, located in the major universities and NHS Trusts across the UK.

The Partnership aims to:

• Identify research priorities that meet patients’ needs
• Provide a collaborative framework for NIHR and BHF cardiovascular translational researchers to deliver world-leading cardiovascular research, leverage funding, and maximise the impact of projects
• Create opportunities for alignment between NIHR and BHF, and to promote collaborations with industry and other stakeholders.

The British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre (BHF-DSC) is a partnership between Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and the BHF, sitting within HDR UK. HDR UK is the UK’s national institute for health data science. HDR UK is uniting the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. Its vision is that large-scale data and advanced analytics will benefit every patient interaction, clinical trial and biomedical discovery to enhance public health.

The BHF-DSC works with a wide range of partners including patients, public, clinicians, researchers and NHS organisations to enable data-led research into the causes, prevention and treatment of all diseases of the heart and circulatory system.

The BHF-DSC aims to:

• Be the UK centre of expertise for cardiovascular data science
• Create strong partnerships to improve health data science infrastructure and reduce barriers for research
• Involve patients and the public to build trust and ensure their work meets people’s needs

The Secure eResearch Platform (SeRP) is a complete customisable solution for data sharing, linkage and analysis in a safe, secure and controlled environment hosted at the University of Swansea and accredited to the highest international standard. SeRP provides a platform for secure and safe data storage and sharing for the purposes of research and long-term benefit to society, serving a diverse range of sectors including:

• Healthcare
• Governments
• Academic Research
• Industry
• Charities & Not-for-profit Organisations

The Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank is a rich and trusted platform for the collection, storage and sharing of population data. The SAIL databank is now one of the best characterised population databanks found anywhere in the world, supporting research communities to access, link and analyse routinely collected population and health data within a safe and secure remote access environment.

SAIL is funded by Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) and is based within the Medical School, Swansea University. SAIL’s work is supported by active partnerships with the NHS and Welsh Government information agencies.

Through partnership with SAIL, the UK CARDIO-IMID Partnership will link data collected through our Registry Study to routinely collected healthcare information throughout the UK facilitating incisive, novel and large-scale research studies in the CARDIO-IMID population.