Scotland sets up Academic Health Research Centre

The collaboration has £15 million funding from the Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office for the creation of new posts across a range of clinical disciplines, including imaging, pharmacy, radiology and tissue banks, over the next three years.

The partnership, bringing together the university medical schools in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, provides a platform for greater collaboration with industry.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said, “This new initiative opens up further opportunities for our researchers to work together and in partnership with industry to turn [...] research into real health benefits.”

The collaboration will be managed by a board comprising representatives of the eight partners and Scottish Enterprise, chaired by the Scottish government's Chief Medical Officer, Harry Burns. It will report annually to the government and the University Principals.

Last year, England underwent a major reorganisation of its leading university medical schools and their associated teaching hospitals, creating American-style Academic Health Science Centres (AHSC) at University College London, Imperial College London, Cambridge and Manchester.

The model is also gaining traction in other parts of Europe as well. The Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm aims to migrate to an AHSC structure, and in Ireland the model has been introduced at University College Dublin, which has formed Dublin Academic Healthcare with its affiliated hospitals, the Mater University Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital. All of the country's medical schools are also partners in a separate entity, Molecular Medicine Ireland, which aims to coordinate biomedical research and education on a country-wide basis.