NIHR icon imagery

About the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre


Who we are

 

The NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London.

We bring together scientists, clinicians, allied health professionals, service users and carers from across South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London.

Our leadership group consists of clinicians and academics working in mental health, neurology, novel therapeutics and informatics. 

Our Service User Advisory Group guides our research priorities and activities, and we are managed and governed by an Executive Board, Management Committee and external independent Scientific Advisory Board.

We are also part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.

The NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people's health and wellbeing and promotes economic growth. It manages research and development within the UK's National Health Service (NHS) – we are part of the NIHR infrastructure and one of 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) in England. BRCs are collaborations between universities and NHS organisations. They bring together academics and clinicians to translate lab-based discoveries into potential new treatments, diagnostics and technologies.

The NIHR has awarded £816 million over five years to 20 BRCs across England.

What we do

We are researching novel tests, treatments and technologies to understand and treat mental disorders. Our aim is to accelerate the translation of the latest scientific discoveries into first-in-man clinical trials and other well designed studies.  The findings from these studies can then be developed and implemented to produce new tests and treatments for people with mental and neurological disorders. 

Our ten research themes are: 

  • Child Mental Health and Neurological Disorders
  • Digital Therapies
  • Eating Disorders and Obesity
  • Experimental Medicine and Therapeutics
  • Motor Neuron Disease
  • Neuroimaging
  • Pain and Addictions
  • Psychosis and Mood Disorders
  • Informatics
  • Trials, Prediction and Genomics

themes matrix

How we work

We support clinical research infrastructure, which includes research facilities and clinical research staff such as research nurses, technicians and technology specialists. 

Our infrastructure bridges the gap between basic discovery research and early phase clinical trials.  We also use our funds to help provide start-up costs for pilot studies to test new ideas in experimental medicine and translational research.

Lastly, we fund training in experimental medicine and neuroscience to ensure there is a new generation of clinical academic researchers ready to meet future healthcare challenges.

We are closely linked to: 

Our history

2007 The NIHR Maudsley BRC was established. NIHR BRCs were commissioned through an open national competition, with applications judged by an international panel of scientific experts. 

We received two further rounds of five-year funding from the Department of Health through NIHR.

April 2017 We received a £66m award taking us up to March 2022

Following NIHR’s decision to discontinue the specialist Biomedical Research Units which operated 2011-2018, the work of the Maudsley Dementia Biomedical Research Unit (BRU-D) is being continued and expanded upon in the NIHR Maudsley BRC as a theme dedicated to dementia and related disorders.

2018 In September 2018 the NIHR Maudsley BRC joined the newly formed NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (TRC). The NIHR Mental Health TRC will carry out much-needed scientific research to help transform the lives of those affected by mental illness. 

December 2022 We received a £41m award taking us to November 2027.

The BRC will continue its work in developing new capabilities in digital therapeutics, alongside established and world-leading programmes on informatics, child mental health, psychosis and eating disorders. 

 

NIHR Maudsley BRC grant award number: Some journals may require the number of our grant award (Dec 2022 - Nov 2027), which is as follows: NIHR203318.

 

Where we are located

We are based across the Denmark Hill campus of King’s College London, with additional units at King’s Guy’s campus and at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. 

Leadership

View our Management webpages 

Work with us

To view jobs at King's College London, or jobs at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Equality & Diversity

View our Equality and Diversity pages 

 

Click through the slides to learn more about the NIHR Maudsley BRC: