NIHR-British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Partnership

Work with us

If you have ideas for research collaborations, The Partnership can help you to work with theme-focused cardiovascular experts from across the UK to develop and deliver research quickly and accelerate translation to the clinic. We have the knowledge and experience needed to get large-scale collaborations off the ground and to support the development of ideas from an early stage through to a mature project suitable for a funding application. 

“The NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership has given us the ideal platform to harmonise the diagnosis and management of coronary microvascular disease across the UK.
Under the aegis of the partnership, we have already formed a collaborative network with more than 20 centres across the country, which also provides an excellent basis for performing patient-centred research in the coming years.”

Professor Divaka Perera, King’s College London

We are keen to explore collaborations with experts based within and outside the UK, as well as academic researchers, the life science industry, charities, patient groups and other stakeholders. Our cardiovascular researchers from NIHR and BHF funded centres are also interested in joining efforts with colleagues from other disciplines. 

“The NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership has been integral in the development of the UK HFpEF Registry. Recognising the international priority of the Registry, the Partnership adopted it as a collaborative workstream and helped to assemble the multidisciplinary UK network of investigators, co-ordinating the UK’s international expertise and capabilities in this area”. 

Professor Christopher Miller, University of Manchester.

The NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership offers the following benefits to its collaborators:

• Flexibility: The possibility to address several focus areas simultaneously, across a spectrum of priorities.
• Agility: We can quickly mobilise the community in response to arising priorities and urgent requests.
• Inclusivity: All researchers are welcome to bring their ideas into the Partnership.
• Traction: Support for the necessary groundwork needed to transform ideas into research plans. 
• High impact: The collaborative programmes developed by the Partnership allow our community of experts to tackle research questions that require scale.

Our UK-wide collaborative research workstreams bring:  

• Faster translation of scientific discoveries into benefits for patients
• Increased capacity to support early phase clinical research delivery
• Increased scope and capacity for high-quality research in an identified area of focus or unmet need
• Increased operational efficiency for delivery of collaborative, experimental medicine research
• Multi-centre research enabled through agreed processes and ways of working
• Improved interactions with external stakeholders such as industry, patient groups and charities
• Opportunities to create strategic alignment between the NIHR, BHF, and other key partners for further cardiovascular research.

For further information about the Cardiovascular Partnership and to find out how to work with us, please contact us.

Our expertise and capabilities

The NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership is currently developing UK-wide collaborative research programmes in several thematic areas of cardiovascular research and medicine.

Cardiovascular Partnership Themes and Leads

Our themes and collaborative programmes focus on:

• Cardio-Immunology
  • CARDIOvascular-Immune-Medicated Inflammatory Disease (CARDIO-IMID) - Professor Maya Buch
  • Inflammatory Cardiomyopathies - Professor Sanjay Prasad and Professor Federica Marelli-Berg
  • Recurrent Pericarditis - Professor Helen Lachmann and Dr Claire Peet

• Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) - Professor Chris Miller

• Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction (CMD) - Professor Divaka Perera and Professor Amedeo Chiribiri

• Aortic Stenosis and Valve Disease - Professor Marc Dweck

• Maternal Cardiovascular Health - Professor Deborah Lawlor

• Pulmonary Hypertension (as a common comorbidity of cardiovascular disease) - Professor Allan Lawrie

• MINOCA and Myocardial Injury - Professor Colin Berry

• Cardio-Oncology - Professor Ninian Lang

Covid - 19 Research Framework

Working closely with the British Heart Foundation and the BHF Clinical Research Collaborative, we set up a Covid-19 Research Framework to identify and prioritise research projects tackling key questions on Covid-19 and cardiovascular health. Through this framework we have identified seven Covid-19 Cardiovascular Disease Flagship Projects.

Our experts lead the Cardiovascular Working Group within the PHOSP Consortium to help maintain alignment and avoid duplication of efforts between studies focused on Covid-19 and cardiovascular disease. The working group also develops new projects based on emerging evidence from the PHOSP Consortium, the Covid-19 Cardiovascular Disease Flagship Projects and other studies.

Who we are

The NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership brings together NIHR infrastructure with BHF investment through its Professors and Centres.

The Partnership is led by Chair Professor Keith Channon who is the BHF Field Marshal Earl Alexander Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford and Deputy Chair Professor Chris Miller from the University of Manchester. Dr Simon Fisher is the Partnership Manager.

A map showing the breadth of expertise in cardiovascular health in the UK

The map below shows the NIHR and BHF centres based across the UK which are part of this Partnership (listed below).

NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs), Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) and Academic Leads

• Barts Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Panagiotis Deloukas, and Professor Federica Marelli-Berg
• Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Rick Steeds and Professor Jonathan Townend
• Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Ian Wilkinson
• Exeter Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Angela Shore
• Imperial Biomedical Research Centre
  Dr Rasha Al-Lamee
• Leicester Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Gerry McCann
• Leeds Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor David Beech
• Manchester Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Bernard Keavney and Professor Maciej Tomaszewski
• Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Barbara Casadei and Professor Keith Channon
• Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Tim Chico and Professor Robert Storey
• University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre
  Professor Aroon Hingorani 

NIHR Clinical Research Facilities and Academic Leads

• Exeter Clinical Research Facility
  Professor Angela Shore
• Imperial Clinical Research Facility
  Professor Martin Wilkins
• Leeds Clinical Research Facility
  Professor Mark Kearney
• Manchester Clinical Research Facility
  Professor Chris Miller 
• Newcastle Clinical Research Facility
  Professor AzfarZaman
• Sheffield Clinical Research Facility
  Professor Chris Newman
• Southampton Clinical Research Facility
  Professor Nick Curzen

British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centres

• Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford
  BHF Professors and Centre of Research Excellence
• Leeds and Southampton
  BHF Professors
• Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester and Manchester
  BHF Professors and Accelerator
• London
  BHF Professors, Queen Mary University of London and University College London BHF Accelerators, King's College London and Imperial College London BHF Centres of Research Excellence. 

Scottish Cardiovascular Centres (CSO Collaboration)

• University of Glasgow
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Aberdeen
• University of Dundee

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