Winners of Knowledge Transfer Partnership 2018 announced

NHS England has announced the winners of the 2018 Chief Scientific Officer’s (CSO) Knowledge Transfer Partnership Programme – a bespoke 12 month development programme that aims to improve patient care and identify new approaches to measurement and outcomes.

The Programme, which runs in partnership with the National Measurement System (NMS), will allow the 9 successful healthcare scientists to work alongside other leading scientists to build long-term collaborations across clinical, research and industry sectors, exchanging skills and expertise to generate, demonstrate and spread innovative ideas to improve patient care.

This collaboration and learning from other science led organisations is crucial to putting science and innovation at the heart of the NHS, delivering the next steps on the five year forward view and ensuring sustained improvements to scientific services for patient benefit.

During the programme, the 9 successful candidates will also have the opportunity to enhance their leadership skills through: individual executive coaching sessions, participating in action learning sets provided by The King’s Fund, building their networks by joining other senior leaders and CEO’s at The King’s Fund annual leadership summit and speaking at the 2019 Chief Scientific Officer’s Conference. 

The programme is in partnership with world class organisations and laboratories that deliver the UK’s National Measurement Strategy including The  National Physical Laboratory (NPL), The National Measurement Laboratory (NML) at LGC,  The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC),  United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and EPSRC Fast Assessment and Treatment in Healthcare Network.

Professor Sue Hill OBE, Chief Scientific Officer for England, said: "I am pleased to announce the 2018 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships for Leaders in Healthcare Science and look forward to another successful year of collaboration. Science and innovation play a crucial role in patient-centred service transformation and are vital to delivering new frontiers in areas such as genomic medicine and tackling antimicrobial resistance. This is a fantastic opportunity for clinical leaders in their fields to harness new technology and innovation to transform services, improve outcomes and reduce cost through academic, clinical and industry partnership.”

Fiona Carragher, Deputy Chief Scientific Officer, said: “The NHS has a proud history of scientific and technological advances in health and it is a pleasure to work with our partners in the National Measurement Systems and The United Kingdom Accreditation Service to deliver this unique scheme. Measurement plays a fundamental part in providing safe and effective care; underpinning quality and enabling innovation and the development of new treatments and diagnostics. We are delighted to be working with NHS healthcare scientists and world-leading centres of excellence in achieving the best care for patients.”

Dr Christian Schneider, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, said: “NIBSC possesses a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the standardisation of biological medicines and clinical diagnostics. As we enter a period of enhanced and improved diagnostic capability across a range of health sciences, it is essential that such measurements be robust, discriminating and clearly linked to correct diagnosis and appropriate therapy. We welcome the opportunity to work alongside our NHS colleagues to support scientific and technological advances that can translate into practice to safeguard public health.”

Find out more about the work that the current Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associates are working on here. 

More about the partner organisations 

NPL, NML at LGC and NIBSC form part of the National Measurement System and are involved in a wide range of research activities that support medical science including cancer therapies, medical imaging, wound management, regenerative medicine and cell therapies, including validating new analytical techniques, reference standards, and metrology for cell and gene therapy and diagnostics for precision medicine, including genomics. 

UKAS Accreditation within the health and social care sector provides reassurance to patients, commissioners and health and social care providers that the service that is being provided has been independently evaluated against recognised standards and has achieved a national mark of quality.

The EPSRC Fast Assessment and Treatment in Healthcare (FAST Healthcare) NetworksPlus is a network of academics with clinical, industrial and charity partners who are working to optimise treatment processes in public healthcare using an engineering methodology to develop practical solutions which can be realistically implemented.