The sites will maximise the advantages of NHS, research, industry, and community connections on a local and global scale.
The Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has outlined its intentions for a new life sciences cluster in Paddington. These ideas are based on the trust’s expanding ties with St Mary’s Hospital area research, business, and community organisations.
There are three projects that make up the trust’s development. A brand-new digital collaborative centre will open in Sheldon Square in the fall of 2022, close to St. Mary’s and Paddington station. It will provide space for lectures, training, events, and meetings while housing the growing digital health programme team at the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). It is affiliated with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Along with the new Institute of Infection at Imperial College London, there will also be a new clinical infection centre and a specialised clinical and translational research facility. Together, they will be one of the few resources in the world to provide end-to-end innovation for the administration of infectious diseases as well as antibiotic resistance, from initial detection to improved outcomes for patients.
To ensure the quickest possible delivery of significant social, health, and economic benefit, Paddington Life Sciences Partners will pull together NHS, university, local authority, and life sciences sector partners with a commitment to the area.
As part of the government’s new hospital programme, the Trust is moving forward with a comprehensive rebuilding of the St. Mary’s estate in the long term. The reconstruction aims to produce a brand-new, cutting-edge hospital as well as an extra 1.5 million square feet of cross-functional business and laboratory space for life sciences enterprises to launch, develop, and expand.
Research and innovation are fundamental to the clinical excellence that their hospitals are known for, from the Nobel Prize-winning breakthroughs of penicillin and the chemical composition of antibodies and the invention of the electrocardiogram to pioneering robotic surgery, HIV care, and the clinical use of virtual reality technology, said Imperial College Healthcare Chief Executive Professor Tim Orchard. Recently, they have been instrumental in advancing knowledge of COVID-19 and testing a variety of novel treatments.