NBT was awarded £1.56m Research Capability Funding (RCF) from the NIHR for 2025/26. This allocation puts NBT in third position out of 258 NHS Trusts and organisations in England.
This is our highest position to date – up from sixth position last year, and the third year in a row we have ranked in the top 10.
RCF is an indicator of how research-active an NHS organisation or health care provider is.
It is awarded to NHS organisations in proportion to the total amount of funding they receive from National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) grants. NIHR is the main funder of applied healthcare research in England and applying for grants is a nationally competitive process.
The combined RCF amount for NBT and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, our partner in the recently formed Bristol NHS Group, is £2.4m. With NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board in first place, these results paint a clear picture of Bristol’s outstanding research activity.
Helen Lewis-White, Deputy Director, Research & Development said:
“This funding announcement is an amazing success story for our Trust, reflecting our commitment to advancing medical research and improving patient care. It also underlines the Bristol area’s capability, capacity and vision to deliver top-class research that benefits patient care in our area and beyond, with our strong regional partnerships playing a vital role in achieving this.”
RCF enables research-active NHS Trusts and organisations to maintain research capacity and capability. It can be used to support research staff costs and contribute towards the costs of hosting NIHR-funded or ‘adopted’ research.
NBT research achievements for the 2024-25 financial year include:
- Opening 106 new studies, including 38 commercial studies – a total 52% increase from the previous year.
- Increasing the number of commercial studies opened by 53%.
- Being awarded combined grants totalling £9.2million, with a 75% success rate for NIHR research grant submissions, which includes success for our Nursing, Midwife and Allied Professional staffing groups.
Rebecca Coad, Research Development and Grants Manager said:
“We’ve worked hard to build on our existing broad NIHR research grant portfolio, focusing on developing and mentoring new researchers from all staffing groups to enable them to develop and deliver high quality research studies. This funding news is a result of the talent and dedication of all those involved in research at NBT – our Research Development and Grants team, the clinical and non-clinical staff who develop and lead these grants, our dedicated support staff and our amazing patient representatives and external collaborators.”