The Bradford Institute for Health Research today announced a £2.25million extension to its offices during a visit by Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley MP.

Work is due to get underway on the new building, which will house 70 research staff health researchers from NHS trusts in Bradford and academic staff from the universities of Bradford, Leeds and York.

BIHR director, Professor John Wright, said: “This is an enormous boost for the Institute and one which represents the growth and expansion that our research department has seen since its creation two years ago.

“At BIHR there is a real passion and commitment to expand our work and maintain our already established position as a national leader in applied health research, a move that can only benefit patients as we develop new and cutting edge healthcare.”

On Tuesday it was also announced that the BIHR will host the new £3million Yorkshire and Humberside Health Innovation and Education Cluster, driving innovation into practice in key priority areas such as long term conditions, child health and patient safety.

The Institute is a unique research partnership between the primary and secondary care NHS Trusts in Bradford and Airedale and the universities of Bradford, Leeds and York.

It runs a number of high-profile public health research programmes such as:

• Born in Bradford – one of the world’s largest public health research projects following the lives of over 10,000 families in the city.
• Stroke and elderly care – hosting the regional stroke research network and one of the leading centres for elderly care research in the UK.
• Maternal and child health – a new centre covering obstetric trials, paediatric epidemiology and childhood obesity.
  

The Institute also focuses on research, which directly contributes to improved patient care in a range of areas including diabetes, genetics, cancer and wound care.

During 2007-09 researchers in Bradford were successful in winning major National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) programme grants worth £5 million for rehabilitation, child health and patient safety.

The Institute is located at the refurbished Temple Bank House at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

For more information contact Jason Joy on 01274 364022 or Tanya Tarry on 364700.

Andrew Lansley will be available for pictures in a JCB today at 3.30pm at Temple Bank House, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Duckworth Lane, Bradford, BD9 6RJ. 

Andrew will then move to the Sovereign Lecture Theatre to talk to local health professionals about the Conservatives Green Paper on improving public health – A Healthier Nation.