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In this blog, NHIP Chief Operating Officer Peter Noble shares the successes of Newcastle Health Innovation Partners so far, and the impact and value to the North East and North Cumbria region.

When Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (NHIP) was accredited as a regional Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) in April 2020, it was not surprising that people across North East and North Cumbria asked, “what’s an AHSC and what will it do for me?”

As with any new organisation or collaboration it takes time to develop and mature, and the significance of NHIP being one of only two AHSCs in the North of England to join the best AHSCs in the world is now being widely recognised.

Amongst many positive outcomes being achieved, there are three key areas from last week’s NHIP Board meeting, demonstrating potential impact and value to the region:

• Firstly, it takes time for the benefits of cutting edge science and education to positively impact on patients and citizens lives and this relies on the partner organisations working collaboratively to streamline, and speed up the innovation pipeline. NHIP has been awarded a series of competitive grants over the last year, which has brought confidence and assurance to Partners, and encouraged the pooling of capabilities and investment to bring about societal benefit. £4.8m of strategic investment was endorsed at last week’s NHIP Board to enable the Partnership achieve its ambitions for the next 3 years.
• Secondly, opportunities to bring breadth and diversity of experience to the Partnership cannot be overemphasised. Newcastle Council, one of the five NHIP Partners, is using their vast experience with citizen reach and economic focus to steer our engagement strategies. One such initiative, Invest Newcastle, is actively supporting and developing our industrial strategy with Partners and guiding NHIP to engage with, and support, seldom heard groups to inform the future delivery of our services and areas of research. We are passionate that effective patient and citizen engagement will genuinely improve patient and citizen outcomes in our mission to help and reduce health inequalities across the region.
• Thirdly, we are keen to take learning from other Centres around the world and we are using investigation proven methods to find better ways to share and disseminate our excellence in research, education and clinical care, locally, regionally and globally. The recent thinking by Professor Dave Jones on the importance of establishing an NHIP Academy to support academic clinical career development, is one of many areas that will position our NHIP as being a leading AHSC.

NHIP is a powerful coalition and, although very proud of what we have already achieved, we are realistic about the significant journey yet to be travelled. We are pleased that strategic investment led and driven by our five Partners will strengthen our foundations and deliver a very bright future for the North East and North Cumbria region. It’s only due to the valuable input of many hundreds of staff from across Partners and collaborators, that we are in this strong position and we are thankful for their goodwill and support, as we now embark on the next steps into an exciting future!