Medicentre – Nurturing Ideas, Creating Growth

Clinical innovations are rarely an overnight success.

New products and ideas that seemingly spring to life as ‘medical breakthroughs’ in the eyes of media writers are often built on years of primary research and mutual trust between researchers and industry, the NHS, government and other partners.

That’s why Cardiff University’s newly affirmed clinical innovation partnership with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is such outstanding news.

The Medicentre will be at the heart of this new agreement, helping businesses to flourish. It will turn innovative clinical research into cutting edge products and clinical services on the Heath Park Campus.

The University and the Health Board now effectively own and run the Medicentre at Heath Park, thanks to a deal signed on the 31^st of March 2016, following the formal announcement of the Clinical Innovation Partnership on St David’s Day.

Based on a long-standing relationship, the agreement underpins closer mutual work on a range of challenges including tackling dementia, developing innovative products and services for better health outcomes, and improving diagnostics linked to precision medicine.

Securing a controlling interest in Medicentre gives both partners the much-needed space to bring ideas to life, where innovative minds can meet to develop great ways of making life better for patients. A key pillar of the joint agreement, the Medicentre will provide the incubation space for future start-ups and spin-outs.

Over the coming weeks, the University will work on dovetailing the Medicentre’s work with the aims of our Way Forward strategy – helping to translate world-beating academic research into products and services that bring future prosperity, sustainable growth and improved well-being.

The Medicentre is already home to international companies. Six are linked to the University, four of which are Cardiff University spin-outs (Alesi Surgical Ltd (formerly Asalus), Authentic World, Cardiff Scintographics, and Medaphor. Cedar, an NHS-academic evaluation centre, and the Welsh Institute for Minimal Access Therapy (WIMAT) are also headquartered here.

Clinical innovation is a key part of the University’s £300m capital investment. As the Economy Minister Edwina Hart said on St David’s Day, closer working between the University and the UHB can only be good news for patients, industry and the wider Welsh economy.