Our research background and vision

Research and innovation are essential for continuous improvement in healthcare. They offer substantial benefits to patients by bringing opportunities to access the latest medical advances, ensuring treatments are clinically and cost-effective. They drive up the quality of care even among patients who do not personally participate in research. Research and innovation bring opportunities for involving patients and the wider community in shaping health care, support financial sustainability of services and can create substantial economic benefits across local communities. Hospitals with a strong research culture are also more fulfilling places to work providing distinctive opportunities for staff development. They benefit from retaining and developing expert motivated staff. For all these reasons, the Trust has placed Research and Innovation at the heart of its ambitions for the future. University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHSussex) is among the largest teaching hospital trusts in England and takes pride in its strong commitment to collaborating with local system partners as a Sussex Health and Care Research Partnership, including social care, to enhance health outcomes through research and innovation. This collaborative approach supports a shared mission of improving lives by advancing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery through high-quality research.

This year, the Sussex Health and Care Research Partnership (HCRP), in collaboration with the Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB) and other key stakeholders, has launched the NHS Sussex research strategy: Improving Lives Together through Research. This five-year strategy outlines a collective vision for research across health and care services in Sussex, setting out how it will contribute to better health, improved care, and more responsive services.

Looking ahead, our new Trust Strategy 2025– 2030, Excellent Care Everywhere, defines our vision and ambitions for the next five years. Central to this is our goal to become a regional leader in research and innovation by 2030.

This includes the development of new Clinical Research Facilities and the NIHR Commercial Research Delivery Centre – Sussex, which will give patients in Sussex quicker access to pioneering treatments and support new partnerships with the life sciences sector to generate additional income. We will also continue to develop one R&I infrastructure, maximising the benefits of working between our hospitals: to achieve together what we wouldn’t be able to do alone.

University Hospitals Sussex will be a place where all patients and staff have the opportunity to participate in high quality research and innovation which is relevant to them, and where we work with partners across Sussex to ensure equality of access to the benefits of health and care research and innovation for the whole population.
Our vision

UHSussex Research Delivery Plan 2025-2030

Building on the University Hospitals Sussex R&I Strategy and the NHS Sussex research strategy: Improving Lives Together through Research the UHSx Research Delivery Plan for 2025-30 sets out our research transformation work plan for the next 5 years and will ensure research enables delivery of the Trust’s new strategy.

The Research Delivery Plan includes three key programmes:

Research delivery transformation
Research culture and embedded workforce – embedding research across the Trust’s clinical services
Research partnerships across our integrated care system and with our patients, public and communities

Annual review 2024/2025

We are proud to present our Annual Review, highlighting the progress and achievements in Research and Innovation across UHSussex over the past year and looking forward to how Research and Innovation will help the Trust to achieve its strategic ambitions for 2030.

Annual review 2024/2025