SLMS Strategic Priorities

UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Strategic Priorities The UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences has developed ambitious plans to build on its unique breadth and depth in research, education and enterprise – particularly by working with local, national and international partners.

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UCL’s School of Life and Medical Sciences is an international leader and the strongest such research grouping in the UK. That strength reflects the quality of its staff, the culture of the organisation and a scale achieved by both organic growth and the successful incorporation of a number of institutes, most recently the School of Pharmacy and three affiliated MRC Units.

By being part of a world-class multifaculty university, we benefit from the expertise of academic colleagues across UCL, a critical advantage given that solutions to many contemporary health problems will depend on insights from the social and behavioural sciences, law and ethics as well as expertise in the physical sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Like the rest of the UK higher education sector, UCL now operates in a different context. Following an unprecedented period of public funding of higher education (and health), resources are now more constrained. UCL faces global competition, and competitor nations are investing more than the UK. The NHS is going through the greatest change since its inception, challenging our principal partner as it struggles with both increasing demand and cost containment.

These changes in the external environment demand that we adapt. Future success will not be guaranteed by pursuing the path that has brought us to where we are. But rather than adopting a defensive strategy, the School seeks to take advantage of unprecedented opportunities in the health science field and achieve a step change in its performance and impact over the next five years. In this way we do justice to our remarkable legacy, and maximise our contribution to societal health, wealth and wellbeing through our academic activities.

The School’s new strategy is informed by a number of principles and values that endure and provide a connection with our past:

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Pursuit of excellence

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Excellence, as judged by national and international benchmarks, will characterise all that we do.

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Academic freedom and accountability We will foster a culture that facilitates excellence, recognising that our staff are the source of new knowledge, the inspiring teachers, and the enterprising individuals. The School’s role is to facilitate their work while operating a fair and transparent accountability framework to govern the use of its resources and promoting equality and diversity.

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Interdisciplinarity Many advances stem from perspectives gained by combining insight from different disciplines. The success of such an approach is exemplified by UCL’s ‘Grand Challenges’. It is something the School does particularly well and will continue to exploit, linking to other Faculties within UCL and beyond.

Partnership As resource constraints limit the pace of organic growth, our reach and influence is extended through collaborative partnership working, providing external stimulus and challenge as well as new insights. Our strategy recognises that our partner specialist hospitals are a unique asset, with whom ever stronger collaborative links should be forged.

The tripartite mission We recognise that education, research and enterprise are interdependent and the pursuit of excellence applies to all three. We seek an optimal student experience through a genuine research-informed approach to education, and the fostering of values that define all of our activities.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES Faculty of Brain Sciences

Faculty of Life Sciences

Faculty of Medical Sciences

UCL Institute of Neurology

Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit

UCL Cancer Institute

UCL Institute of Ophthalmology

UCL Division of Biosciences

UCL Ear Institute

UCL School of Pharmacy

UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (including UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience)

UCL MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology

UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit

UCL Eastman Dental Institute UCL Division of Infection and Immunity UCL Division of Medicine (including the Wolfson Institute of Biomedical Research and UCL Institute of Hepatology) UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science UCL Medical School

Faculty of Population Health Sciences UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care UCL Institute of Child Health UCL Institute for Women’s Health UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science UCL Institute for Global Health UCL Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology

EXPRESSION OF THE STRATEGY In 2010, we restructured to create four Faculties of roughly equal size to give both prominence and representation to our core strengths but also to signal our commitment to the whole translational pathway from fundamental discovery to population impact.

Commensurate with the restructuring was the creation of cross-cutting ‘Domains’, fluid networks designed to promote interdisciplinary approaches across the Faculties and beyond.

In this representation, the School is the Faculties, empowering and facilitating the implementation of their component strategies, enjoined by common mission, vision and values.

The School’s key roles are to promote interdisciplinarity and effective partnerships, and to oversee the generation of the human, physical and financial resources required to achieve our strategic objectives.

This document describes strategic priorities over the next five years. It is not intended to be comprehensive or to describe the many exciting developments being pursued at Division and Institute level, which are captured more fully in the School’s web pages (www.ucl.ac.uk/slms) and six companion publications exploring activities in basic life sciences, neuroscience, population health, translation and experimental medicine, enterprise, and education (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/ about-us/about-sections/slms-publications).

Rather, the document identifies specific areas where major attention will be focused, leading to a step change in our standing and performance, and fulfilling our obligation as a world-leading institution to realise our full academic potential for the benefit of humanity.

Sir John Tooke Vice-Provost (Health) and Head of the UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Faculty strategic priorities 2013–18

The Faculties within the UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences have identified priority areas, building on existing strengths and reflecting emerging scientific opportunities, which will be a particular focus over the next five years.

BRAIN SCIENCES

LIFE SCIENCES

FACULTY OF BRAIN SCIENCES

FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES

Research • Neurodegeneration and neuroprotection • Mental health • Sensory systems and therapies • Cognitive ageing

Research • Drug discovery • Systems biology • IM3 Institute for Mechanisms of Molecular Machines • Functional genomics • Cell imaging • Centre for ion channels in health and disease

Teaching • MRes in Brain Sciences • New taught master’s programmes and accredited CPD Enterprise • Industrial partnerships to transform society

Teaching • e-Learning • New programme development Enterprise • Enhancing research impact

PROMOTING INTERDISCIPLINARITY

PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION

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We will promote interdisciplinary working between our Faculties and across other UCL Schools and beyond.

We will work with local, national and international partners to maximise our impact.

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• We will focus on the major research domains of neuroscience, personalised medicine, lifelong health and health informatics

• We will work to ensure the success of the Francis Crick Institute

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• Each institute and division will be charged with embracing interdisciplinarity • We will support pan-UCL initiatives in: biomedical engineering; informatics; science, medicine and society; and environment.

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• We will strengthen international partnerships with other world-leading institutions, including Yale and Zurich • We will develop partnerships with UK institutions with complementary expertise and shared ambitions • We will enhance collaboration and sharing of expertise with industrial partners.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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MEDICAL SCIENCES

POPULATION HEALTH SCIENCES

FACULTY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES Research • Bloomsbury Research Institute • Institute of Immunity and Transplantation • Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Sciences

FACULTY OF POPULATION HEALTH SCIENCES Research • From rare to common diseases • Translational pharmacogenetics • Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research • Citizen science

Teaching • The UCL doctor • Key education growth • UCL Medical School international

Teaching • BSc in Population Health Sciences Enterprise • Knowledge transfer and therapy development

Enterprise • Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst/GSK links

CLINICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

BUILDING CAPACITY

We will work closely with our outstanding clinical partners to implement our research strategy.

We will invest heavily in our workforce and our workplace in order to achieve our objectives.

Through UCL Partners, one of the UK’s foremost Academic Health Science Centres, UCL has strong ties to an unmatched range of clinical expertise and facilities at UCLH, the Royal Free Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Moorfields Eye Hospital, and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. These links underpin our strong commitment to experimental medicine and clinical translation.

World-class research, teaching and enterprise are achievable only through the efforts of our staff. We will invest in the development of our staff, nurturing leadership skills and promoting equality and diversity and career development of staff at all levels.

Future strategy will focus particularly on lifelong health, personalised medicine and neuroscience, which align precisely with UCL’s research domains to maximise synergy, and two enabling priorities – informatics and population health sciences. A major goal will be to integrate research and clinical practice to exploit health data at all stages of the translational pathway, from understanding of disease processes to optimal systems for delivering healthcare.

At the same time, we will undertake major building redevelopment, to provide high-quality facilities for our staff to work in. We will bring new research groupings together and establish world-leading sites for experimental medicine and commercial translation.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Faculty of Brain Sciences The Faculty of Brain Sciences seeks to understand and solve the greatest health and wellbeing problems in the brain sciences, in order to transform society and reduce the global burden of disease.

NEURODEGENERATION AND NEUROPROTECTION Dementia is a major challenge to health both in the UK and internationally. We have invested in new approaches to drive forward the development and testing of new diagnostics and therapeutics, and will integrate these approaches with our strengths in the clinical and social management of disease. A central role will be played by the new Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre, incorporating a world-class training programme to develop the next generation of basic and clinical dementia researchers.

MENTAL HEALTH We will bring together multidisciplinary research teams that span the molecular, cellular, cognitive, psychological, social and epidemiological aspects of mental health in a single institute. Such transformative action will deliver new biological insights, lead to novel approaches to treatment and management, and identify how evidence-based care can better deliver benefits to patients and populations.

TEACHING MRes in Brain Sciences There is an urgent need for scientists with a sound understanding of both molecular and systems-level neuroscience. We have established a new MRes in Brain Sciences to provide this grounding, generating a cohort of researchers able to integrate different levels of complexity in their research.

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E New taught master’s programmes and accredited CPD We will introduce new taught master’s programmes in areas such as sensory neuroscience, translational neuroscience, medical audiology, neuromuscular disease and mental health sciences, drawing on our outstanding research expertise and partnerships with specialist hospitals. The introduction of creditbearing continuing professional development, along with flexible postgraduate pathways utilising blended learning, will increase the accessibility of our education and clinical training programmes to students in the UK and internationally.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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FIND OUT MORE… Read more about our work in this area in our research review on Neuroscience and Mental Health.

Neuroscience and Mental Health UCL SChooL of Life and MediCaL SCienCeS Creating knowledge, achieving impact

SENSORY SYSTEMS AND THERAPIES

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COGNITIVE AGEING

We will integrate the Faculty’s world-leading research and teaching in audition, vision and cognition to drive forward research into the function of these sensory systems and mechanisms of disease. We will prioritise the development of novel interventions to prevent or treat disease, or replace lost sensory function, through multidisciplinary strategies including stem cells and regenerative medicine, gene therapy, bioengineering and assistive devices.

We will foster a lifelong cognition programme bringing together and enhancing existing research to cover the entire lifespan. We will exploit our expertise in behavioural and cognitive sciences, genetics, and neurology and neuroscience to improve understanding of the basic processes underlying human wellbeing from infant development to ageing, and to inform strategies for behavioural change interventions.

ENTERPRISE

FACULTY INSTITUTES

Industrial partnerships to transform society We will continue to develop highly successful partnerships with pharmaceutical, medical device and industry partners, including GSK, Pfizer and Autiphony, and have recently established a major new agreement with Eisai Pharmaceuticals to develop a Therapeutic Innovation Group with the potential to link with the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre. We will deliver new bioincubator space at the Institute of Ophthalmology and at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, lead on first wave projects at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst and continue to develop our technology transfer portfolio.

• UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience • UCL Ear Institute • UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit • UCL Institute of Neurology • UCL Institute of Ophthalmology • UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences

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Faculty of Life Sciences The Faculty will build on its existing strengths in developmental biology and ageing, evolutionary and population genetics, cellular neuroscience, and structural biology.

The merger with the UCL School of Pharmacy provides new opportunities in drug discovery, while an emphasis on computational approaches will feed into both functional genomics research and neural circuitry studies at the new Sainsbury–Wellcome Centre.

DRUG DISCOVERY We will establish a new Centre for Drug Discovery, using novel approaches to identify drug targets and to progress promising drug candidates to clinical validation. The Centre will integrate expertise in medicinal chemistry, high-throughput in vitro and in vivo screening, and cell and structural biology. It will focus on a range of therapeutic areas including pain, behavioural disorders, autoimmune conditions, cancer, neurodegeneration and wound healing.

SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE The new Sainsbury–Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour will be at the heart of efforts to further strengthen research in systems-level neuroscience. As well as recruiting outstanding research groups to the Centre, we will nurture close links with basic and computational neuroscientists in other departments, in the Faculty of Brain Sciences and outside UCL. Priorities will include computational neuroscience and building capacity in invertebrate model organisms.

IM3 INSTITUTE FOR MECHANISMS OF MOLECULAR MACHINES A key aim is to expand structural, molecular and synthetic biology expertise to explore the formation, function and re-engineering of multiprotein macromolecular nanomachines in living systems.

We will build on existing links with the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemical Engineering to create a centre of excellence. Our long-term objective is to create a new world-class Institute jointly between UCL and Birkbeck.

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New programme development We will develop a new four-year undergraduate Biological Sciences programme with an extended individual research project and in-depth research-problem-based teaching. Students will exit with a BSc (Hons) after three years or a master’s-level qualification after year 4.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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TEACHING e-Learning We will review and enhance e-learning provision across all programmes, with an emphasis on enhanced assessment and feedback.

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FIND OUT MORE… Read more about our work in this area in our research review on Basic Life Sciences.

Basic Life Sciences UCL SChooL of Life and MediCaL SCienCeS Creating knowledge, achieving impact

FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS We will further develop our use of model organisms to determine gene functions in health and disease, and ally this with computational approaches that help to resolve the functional significance of genomic organisation and the alterations that contribute to disease.

The combination of computational and experimental approaches is a powerful way to add functional value to the ever-increasing torrent of genomic information. Most commonly used model systems are represented within the Faculty and will form the basis for further development.

CELL IMAGING Building on existing strengths and exploiting new technological opportunities, we will establish a major centre for in vitro and in vivo imaging of dynamic cellular processes. The centre will incorporate new super-resolution and multiphoton microscopes, with associated research programmes to drive forward the development of new imaging tools.

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CENTRE FOR ION CHANNELS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE Building upon existing expertise and the availability of new techniques, we will establish a new centre for ion channels in health and disease.

Its mission will be to advance our understanding of the structure, function and signalling pathways associated with receptors, ion channels and transporters. The centre will enable the Faculty to develop research excellence from single molecule function to cellular synaptic physiology and neuronal networks, areas for which we are world-renowned, and will facilitate the translation of basic receptor biology research.

ENTERPRISE PRIORITY

FACULTY INSTITUTES

Enhancing research impact We will improve links with industrial partners and with UCL Business, through additional industrial partnership grants, collaborative studentships, research contracts, knowledge transfer partnerships and consultancies. Stevenage Biosciences Catalyst and new bio-incubator space within London will enhance opportunities for translational research.

• UCL Division of Biosciences • Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit • Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology • UCL School of Pharmacy

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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

Faculty of Medical Sciences The Faculty aims to generate a deeper understanding of human disease and drive forward the development of new diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions, to achieve a demonstrable impact on the quality of healthcare delivered nationally and internationally. Operating through partnerships, we will establish beacons of excellence across a broad range of experimental medicine areas.

BLOOMSBURY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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A strategic collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Bloomsbury Research Institute will be a world-class centre of research in infectious disease, able to make a significant contribution to the eradication of global killers such as HIV, TB and malaria. The Institute will combine both scale – more than 50 principal investigators and 400 researchers – with breadth and excellence, in experimental studies and global health policy. Integration of research on pathogens, hosts and global populations has the potential to bring about a step change in control of infectious disease.

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TEACHING The UCL Doctor UCL Medical School aims to develop a cohort of doctors who are clinically competent, scientifically literate, and capable of achieving excellence in any branch of the biomedical sciences. UCL Medical School is currently ranked first in London and seventh in the UK, and aims to be ranked first nationally.

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E Key education growth We will launch new courses, including an undergraduate course in Applied Medical Sciences, to be based in the Royal Free Hospital campus, and an MB MBA in partnership with a business school.

In addition, the successful MB PhD programme will be expanded.

UCL Medical School international UCL Medical School will establish new international partnerships to deliver expertise in the development of medical education in different countries and cultures.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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FIND OUT MORE… Read more about our work in this area in our research review on Translation and Experimental Medicine.

Translation and Experimental Medicine 2 UCL SChooL of Life and MediCaL SCienCeS Creating knowledge, achieving impact

INSTITUTE OF IMMUNITY AND TRANSPLANTATION

INSTITUTE OF ORTHOPAEDICS AND MUSCULOSKELETAL SCIENCES

Novel therapeutic approaches are poised to have a significant impact on the treatment of diabetes, cancer, liver disease and many other conditions.

The new Institute of Immunity and Transplantation to be established at the Royal Free Hospital will create a world centre for research into and translation of these innovative technologies, the only such centre outside the USA. It will provide a translational catalyst for immunology research at the Crick Institute.

In partnership with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust and the Faculty of Engineering, we will redevelop the Stanmore Campus, creating new facilities to support expansion of the Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Sciences. The vision is to deliver worldclass bioengineering science that can be translated in close partnership with specialist NHS provision.

ENTERPRISE PRIORITY

FACULTY INSTITUTES

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst/GSK links A key priority will be to develop the partnership opportunity launched between GSK, UCL and the University of Cambridge.

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst will provide a supportive environment for pioneering enterprise activities. In addition, we will establish a new UCL/GSK Visiting Professorship and develop a strategic alliance in fibrosis and repair.

• UCL Medical School • UCL Cancer Institute • UCL Eastman Dental Institute • UCL Division of Infection and Immunity • UCL Division of Medicine incorporating the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL • UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Faculty of Population Health Scien The Faculty will harness the potential of its intensively characterised clinical and community cohorts – from rare disease registries of fewer than 100 individuals through to populations of hundreds of thousands – to deliver benefits to individual patients and to populations. Innovative interdisciplinary approaches will be critical, as will new forms of engagement with the public and patients, and with policy-makers.

FROM RARE TO COMMON DISEASES Our deeply phenotyped and genotyped patient cohorts will enable us to identify the causative genes in rare diseases, and investigate mechanisms of disease. Such discoveries underpin the use of novel stem cell and gene therapies, using technology that may in the future be applicable to more common diseases. Early phase clinical trials will be critical to this pathway.

TRANSLATIONAL PHARMACOGENETICS

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Harnessing our exceptional access to large population and patient collections, with linkage to routinely collected health record data, we will bridge the gap between bioand health informatics through a programme of translational pharmacogenetics. Recent discoveries in genomics and related fields offer opportunities for the development of novel drug therapies and biomarkers predictive of treatment response, to maximise treatment benefits and minimise harm. However, practical application will depend on an assessment of clinical utility and cost-effectiveness. With our expertise in genomics and biomarker research, as well as in clinical trials, prognosis and applied healthcare research, we are uniquely placed to conduct such studies.

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TEACHING

ENTERPRISE

BSc in Population Health Sciences We will launch a BSc in Population Health Sciences to meet society’s growing needs for interdisciplinary biomedical and social scientists with quantitative health analytic and management skills, but who also understand the causes of good health and the consequences of ill-health in populations. We will also provide additional continuing professional development opportunities, particularly through new institutes in health informatics and clinical trials methodology.

Knowledge transfer and therapy development Building on a long tradition of knowledge transfer – particularly in policy-making, clinical guideline development and health service configuration – we will enhance commercial translation in areas such as gene and stem cell treatment, diagnostic markers, neonatology and prenatal therapies. We will also exploit our analytic and statistical expertise in observational and trial data.

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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Read more about our work in this area in our research review on Population Health.

Population Health UCL SChooL of Life and MediCaL SCienCeS Creating knowledge, achieving impact

FARR INSTITUTE OF HEALTH INFORMATICS RESEARCH

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CITIZEN SCIENCE

We will develop capacity to exploit the explosion of data from cohort and panel surveys. Interdisciplinary working is central to this endeavour. We will develop theoretical approaches to understand how social and individual circumstances interact with biological pathways to influence health and disease, as well as new paradigms that integrate social theory with phenotypic, genotypic and ‘omic’ data. In addition, to advance population health, we will drive forward the development of biostatistical and quantitative methodologies, across observational, experimental and evaluative domains.

We will develop patient and public involvement in research, not simply as passive participants but as true collaborators.

This will encompass the ‘quantitative self’ concept, as people use new technology to collect multiple forms of data during daily life, as well as ‘citizen science’, with the public directly involved in data collection or analysis. As well as generating valuable data, this approach can strengthen the social contract between public, patients and health researchers.

FACULTY INSTITUTES • UCL Institute of Child Health • UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care • UCL Institute for Women’s Health • UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science • UCL Institute for Global Health

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• UCL Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Developing our physical space To support our ambitious academic plans, we are undertaking a major redevelopment of our working environments.

World-class research demands world-class facilities.

Guided by our scientific strategy, we are investing substantial sums in a range of new facilities, to house new institutes and combinations of research groups, and to provide new opportunities for interactions between researchers and clinicians – thereby accelerating clinical translation.

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The School occupies buildings on multiple sites across central London, at the Royal Free Hospital in north London and elsewhere. A major programme of new build and refurbishment is underway across all locations.

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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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DEVELOPING OUR PEOPLE The School has a talented and highly qualified body of staff.

As well as being committed to UCL’s institutional aim of developing skills and capability among all staff, we are promoting, recognising and rewarding outstanding performance. We are launching a pioneering management-training pathway – ‘Future Leaders’ – to prepare a diverse cadre of academic staff for succession to senior leadership roles.

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In addition to opportunities for existing staff, we aim to recruit talented individuals who will deliver world-class research, teaching and knowledge transfer. Once they are part of the UCL community, we are committed to growing their expertise and leadership skills.

We will implement our new promotion and appraisal policies to foster better career management across the School and to ensure equality of opportunity for career progression.

Promoting and celebrating diversity underpins all activity across the School, and we are keenly aware that the equality agenda is integral to our ability to deliver the very best science and teaching.

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A new Academic Careers Office (www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/aco/ homepage) has been established to enthuse and develop the next generation of innovative and inspiring biomedical and clinical academic scientists. The Office is responsible for the Future Leaders programme, profiling academic role models, and cross-institution initiatives such as the new Clinical Fellows scheme run jointly with the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute.

The Office provides a single point of contact for funders in managing the School’s large clinical and academic training cohorts. Finally, in partnership with the UCLH–UCL NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, pioneering initiatives will encourage nurses and allied health professionals into biomedical research.

DELIVERING THE VISION Delivering this level of ambition will demand the generation of more financial resources, rigorous business planning and first-class execution, linking seamlessly with central UCL support services.

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We plan to increase our operational budget by more than £40m over the next five years, in addition to our multimillion capital investment in infrastructure. This sustainable growth will be underpinned by significantly increased income founded on the quality of our research, teaching and knowledge transfer. New teaching programmes, including distance and blended learning provision, consultancy and growing philanthropic support for our aims will represent the major means of achieving this growth.

Our school support structures will be reconfigured to focus on finance and business affairs, strategic projects and partnerships, research coordination (cross-School and pan-UCL) to complement the Academic Careers Office and the Translational Research and Industrial Partnerships Office. Functional teams will be formed from these groupings to optimise delivery of our plans.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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strategic priorities

The power of partnership

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The School is committed to developing partnerships with other academic institutions at home and abroad, the health service and industry to enhance research and its translation into better healthcare.

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UCL SLMS WOrld partnerships 1 Cambridge (Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst) Oxford (Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation) 2 United States (UCL–Yale Collaborative) 3 Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM) 4 South Africa (University of Cape Town) 5 Namibia (University of Namibia) 6 Mauritius (Ministry of Health & Quality of Life) 7 Qatar (Qatar Foundation and Sidra Medical Research Centre)

8 India (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore) 9 Singapore (National University of Singapore) 10 China (Chongqing Medical University) 11 Taiwan (Taipei Medical University) 12 Australia (University of Western Australia) 13 France (Paris Sciences et Lettres & INSERM) 14 Germany (Helmholtz Zentrum München) 15 Switzerland (Zurich University) 16 Sweden (Karolinska Institutet)

U academic There is increasing recognition that inter-institutional strategic partnerships and academic, clinical and industrial links drive the achievement of both academic and societal impact. The UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences recognises the power and importance of genuine partnership working, which it pursues deliberately and strategically through its Partnerships Board, linking closely with UCL’s International Strategy. Links are developed at a local, London, national and international level, and embrace collaborations with both other world-class institutions with complementary strengths and emerging institutions as part of our commitment to capacity building.

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Importantly, our partners are not just other higher education institutions but also industry, charities and, of course, the NHS.

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The world map is a graphical representation of our international interconnectedness. Our priorities over the next five years from a UK perspective are as follows:

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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS The Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute, the largest biomedical research centre in Europe, will open in 2015. UCL is the founding academic partner and is committed to making this once-ina-generation development a stunning success. The Institute’s commitment to excellence and interdisciplinarity chimes with our own, as does its positioning as a national resource and intellectual hub for the nation.

Together with our partner specialist hospitals, the School will provide the route for translation of research conducted within the Crick Institute. Through our interdisciplinary links, we will also facilitate the creation of satellite groupings in areas such as mathematics, physics, imaging and chemical biology.

We will offer the optimal research student experience for Crick students registered with UCL for their higher degrees.

NHS PARTNERSHIPS

In line with the School’s strategy, research will embrace the whole of the translational pathway. Educational initiatives will be outcome-focused and take full advantage of the range of blended learning methods.

Programmatic initiatives will continue but particular attention will be paid to three aggregate priorities: lifelong health, personalised medicine and neuroscience, and two enabling priorities: informatics and population health sciences.

The inclusion of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Board member of UCLP will build on the strong strategic links with the School in the fields of genetic epidemiology, infection and global health issues. In addition, linkages with our other UCLP academic partner – Queen Mary, University of London – will build on established links in the cardiometabolic field, neuroscience, rare diseases, informatics and applied health research.

INTEGRATING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC)

UCL Partners UCL is the founding academic partner in what is arguably the strongest and most developed accredited Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) in England.

Our partnership credentials and achievements stimulated the creation of a national web of Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) to foster the diffusion of innovation throughout the NHS. Our AHSC is currently submitting for reaccreditation, providing an opportunity consistent with our overall strategy to enhance further academic engagement, secure optimal alignment between the School’s and UCLP’s strategies, and define common priorities.

UCLP will lead a new NIHR-funded CLAHRC, bringing together 49 organisations, including six academic institutions, to drive forward applied health research across a population of six million people in north and east London and surrounding areas.

This academic–clinical collaboration will carry out innovative research and promote its translation to improve patient and population health, with five priority areas: • Innovations in systems and models of healthcare • Methodological innovation • Optimising behaviour and engagement with care • Empowering mental health service users and families • Child and adolescent health

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTRES UCL is a partner in an unprecedented number of NIHRsupported Biomedical Research Centres and Units, driving the development of new therapies, devices and diagnostics through the application of experimental medicine.

UCLH–UCL Biomedical Research Centre • Cancer

• Infection and immunity

• Cardiometabolic

• Neuroscience

Great Ormond Street Hospital–UCL Biomedical Research Centre

UCL Partners academic health science partnership

• Paediatrics and child care Moorfields Eye Hospital–UCL Biomedical Research Centre

26m Patient base

• Eyes and vision

100 000 Clinicians and academics

UCLH–UCL Dementia Biomedical Research Unit

24 Acute, community and mental health providers

We plan to achieve a step change in our activities, productivity, industrial partnerships and leveraged income, and promote inter-BRC collaboration and close links with other parts of UCL’s translational infrastructure.

25 Boroughs, councils 13 Higher education institutions and research networks 20 Clinical Commissioning Groups >100 Industry links >100 Independent and third-party healthcare providers

We will amplify UCLP’s impact by working with the other two AHSCs in London, to promote London as the premier capital city for life science research and clinical scientific education.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIPS

ENABLING INFRASTRUCTURE

We will build on our burgeoning success at creating collaborative partnerships with industry, where we are number one in the UK in the biomedical sphere, with only two US institutions ahead of us. Through our Translational Research and Industrial Partnerships office, we will increase such activity fivefold over the next five years.

The realisation of our ambitions will require superb infrastructure in terms of teaching accommodation and research platforms.

Our new learning hubs and online support will address the former and we will continue to rationalise and develop our genomics, biomics, and cell and gene therapy capabilities.

Recognising that inward investors see London and Oxbridge as part of a whole, we will continue to foster collaborative working across the elite institutions in the South East through our Board membership of GMEC (the Global Medical Excellence Cluster; www.gmecuk.com/). Our joint Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation (CASMI; http://casmi.org.uk/) with the University of Oxford is one such priority and will help promote the UK as a nation responsive to the challenges facing the life science industries. Our joint commitment to the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst with the University of Cambridge is another partnership upon which we will build to secure an ‘M11 corridor’ of life science expertise and inward investment.

We recognise our success will be crucially dependent on our ability to exploit our status as one of four UK hubs for e-health informatics, serving London and the South East (www.ucl.ac.uk/chapter), and the host to the most extensive collection of population cohorts in the country. We will create ‘safe havens’ so that the full power of citizen and patient clinical, biological and other data sets can be interrogated to generate new insights into disease, gene–environment interactions and the social determinants of health, establishing UCL as the national epicentre of such activity.

We will further strengthen our relationship with Eisai, the leading Japanese pharmaceutical company, by engaging in collaborative research with the Eisai Neuroscience Product Creation Unit. In addition, Eisai will incorporate UCL research functions into its UK-based Eisai European Knowledge Centre.

UCL DATA HUB

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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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Support life-saving research at UCL You can make a difference by making a donation to support research at UCL. For complete details of how to make a donation, go to www.ucl.ac.uk/makeyourmark Alternatively, email makeyourmark@ucl.ac.uk or call +44 (0)20 3108 3834 to discuss how you can best support our work.

CREDITS Cover: Dr Jamie Kawadler; p.2 (left to right):UCL; Dr Karli Montague; iStockphoto/red_moon_rise; iStockphoto/Mishatc; iStockphoto/guenterguni; Dr Sion Lewis; iStockphoto/DenKuvaiev; UCL; Krista Kennell/ZUMA/Corbis; iStockphoto/Yuri_Acurs; p.6 (left): Dr Jamie Kawadler; p.6 (right): iStockphoto/ surpasspro; p.7 (left): Dr David Furness, Wellcome Images; p.7 (right): iStockphoto/Yuri; p.8 (left): iStockphoto/red_moon_rise; p.8 (centre): Dr Kieran Boyle; p.8 (right): Professor Gabriel Waksman; p.9 (left): Professor Adrienne Flanagan; p.9 (centre): K L Ordidge, A Badar, R Yan, E Arstad, S M Janes, M F Lythgoe, UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging; p.9 (right): Professor Patricia C Salinas; p.10 (left): Jean-Yves Sgro/Visuals Unlimited/ Corbis; p.10 (right): NIAID; p.11 (left): NIBSC/Science Photo Library; p.11 (right): iStockphoto/Blend_Images; p.12 (left): Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Images; p.12 (right): Krista Kennell/ZUMA/Corbis; p.13 (left): iStockphoto/ AndreasKermann; p.13 (right): iStockphoto/SensorSpot.

Text: Ian Jones, Jinja Publishing Ltd Design: Jag Matharu, Thin Air Productions Ltd © UCL. Text may not be reproduced without permission. The UCL ‘dome’ logo and the letters ‘UCL’ are the registered trademarks of UCL and may not be used without permission.

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About UCL UCL is one of the world’s top universities. Based in the heart of London it is a modern, outward-looking institution. At its establishment in 1826 UCL was radical and responsive to the needs of society, and this ethos – that excellence should go hand-in-hand with enriching society – continues today.

UCL’s excellence extends across all academic disciplines; from one of Europe’s largest and most productive hubs for biomedical science interacting with several leading London hospitals, to world-renowned centres for architecture (UCL Bartlett) and fine art (UCL Slade School).

UCL is in practice a university in its own right, although constitutionally a college within the federal University of London. With an annual turnover exceeding £800 million, it is financially and managerially independent of the University of London.

UCL’s staff and former students have included 21 Nobel prizewinners. It is a truly international community: more than one-third of our student body – around 25,000 strong – come from nearly 140 countries and nearly one-third of staff are from outside the UK.

www.ucl.ac.uk UCL Gower Street London WC1E 6BT Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 2000

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