UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences
Strategic Priorities
UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences
Creating knowledge, achieving impact
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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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strategic priorities
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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strategic priorities
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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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
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences
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strategic priorities
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
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences
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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
IN
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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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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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strategic priorities
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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FIND OUT MORE…
ciences
t
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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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STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
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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9 UCL Institute of Ophthalmology Moorfields Eye Hospital
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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.
9
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.
4
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.
3
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)
11Taiwan (Taipei Medical University)
12Australia (University of Western Australia)
13France (Paris Sciences et Lettres & INSERM)
14Germany (Helmholtz Zentrum München)
15Switzerland (Zurich University)
16Sweden (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.
16
Importantly, our partners are not just other higher education
institutions but also industry, charities and, of course, the NHS.
2
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:
2
2
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2
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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
18
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2013–18 UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences
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e
,
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.
TAP1851/15-09-13/V11
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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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