Research Overview
The Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) was established in 2000 to bring together the leading groups engaged in health sciences research from across the University of Manchester in partnership with local National Health Service (NHS) organisations. Its mission is to improve health and health care practice through high quality research in the health sciences. It aims to achieve this by:
- Promoting interdisciplinary research in the health sciences
- Guiding and coordinating the strategic development of the health sciences community
- Generating increased investment in health sciences research and postgraduate training
- Supporting the translation and implementation of research findings by NHS colleagues
- Enhancing the profile and prestige of the health science community
The IHS recognises that healthcare policy and practice is best advanced through the concerted effort of researchers from a wide range disciplines, including epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, psychology, management sciences, social policy and sociology together with colleagues in the various clinical specialties. By working in partnership with the NHS, researchers gain access to a first rate laboratory in which to develop and evaluate new healthcare interventions, including the ability to mount large scale randomised controlled trials. The added value of the IHS lies in its ability to develop and support high quality, multidisciplinary research that extends across organisational boundaries within and between the University of Manchester and the Greater Manchester NHS Trusts. The considerable research potential of the health science community is thereby released and directed to the advancement of evidence-based health policy and practice.
In the University of Manchester, the academic core of the IHS is centred on applied health science researchers in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. They are joined by leading health researchers from management, education and social sciences in the Faculty of Humanities to create a health science community of considerable strength and international prestige. The Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 confirmed that the university had, across its Faculties of Medical and Human Sciences, Life Sciences, Humanities and Engineering and Physical Sciences one of the largest and most active health science research groups in Europe. Particular strengths were seen in areas like nursing, dentistry, midwifery, pharmacy and clinical psychology. The university was ranked first in the UK in four subjects (cancer, nursing and midwifery, dentistry and sociology); and second in the UK in four more (preclinical and human biological sciences, primary care, pharmacy, development studies). On the measure of research power, the university was in the top three overall in the UK.
National Health Service (NHS) facilities in Greater Manchester and the North West offer outstanding opportunities for collaborative research. Key achievements include streamlined Research Governance arrangements and the development of a shared 'R and D passport' that enables any one trust to register research and accredit researchers on behalf of all the trusts in Greater Manchester and beyond.
Contributing Research Disciplines
Excellence in interdisciplinary research can be achieved only if the contributing disciplinary groups are strong in their own areas of research. The IHS is exceptional in the breadth and depth of its expertise across the health sciences:
