U.K. Researchers Join Forces

Five of Britain?s top medical research centers and hospitals will come together next month to create what they say will be Europe?s leading health research powerhouse.

Based in London, the new academic health science partnership—to be known as UCL Partners—will support more than 3,500 scientists, senior researchers, and consultants. With combined annual revenues of roughly $4 billion, the partners together treat more than 1.5 million patients every year.

UCL Partners will consist of University College London (UCL), rated the best U.K. university for health research; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, which specializes in pediatrics; Moorfields Eye Hospital, which, together with the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, is a leading center for eye health; the Royal Free Hampstead Hospital, a specialist in clinical transplants; and UCL Hospitals, which together with the university currently forms one of the largest partnerships for biomedical research in Europe.

UCL Partners will focus initially on 10 areas of research: the nervous system, children?s health, heart disease, transplantation, immunology, ophthalmology, deafness and hearing impairment, dental and oral disease, cancer, and women?s health.