Our research infrastructure

The NIHR Newcastle CRF carries out complex medical research in adults and children to test new treatments for the first time (known as early phase trials).

Research takes place across three main sites:

• The clinical research facility at the Royal Victoria Infirmary
• The clinical ageing research unit – a patient-friendly facility which focuses on ageing and age-related conditions such as dementia, on the Campus for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle.
• The dental clinical research facility, based at Newcastle Dental Hospital.

Based in the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, the centre is supported by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and focusses on clinical research into new cancer drug therapies and techniques.

The centre carries out early phase trials, also known as phase I and II trials, which usually involve a small number of patients and test a new drug for the first time.

Commercial research delivery centres (CRDCs) were established in April 2025 to enhance the speed and efficiency of commercial clinical research in the UK. Based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, our CRDC acts as a regional hub for pioneering clinical trials.

Our aim is to give more people access to the latest clinical trials and treatments and to reach people in the community who might not otherwise consider taking part in research.

Through a network of researchers in hospitals and GP practices, we can deliver trials for a range of health conditions.

We are currently working with the partners below to increase capacity for commercial research:

• Newcastle GP Services
• North West North Tyneside Primary Care Network
• Northumbria Primary Care
• Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
• Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

If you have any questions or want to find out how you can work with us, please email [email protected]

The National Centre for Neurotechnology and Neurorestoration, part of Newcastle Hospitals, is the UK’s first centre dedicated to support new and emerging technologies interacting with the brain or nervous system.

Led by surgical and academic experts at Newcastle Hospitals and Newcastle University, the centre evaluates neurotechnologies, including state-of-the-art devices such as brain-computer interfaces and brain stimulators.

These devices offer transformative change to the management of neurological conditions where there are currently limited, or no treatment options available, for example, in motor, sensory, cognitive or mood disorders.

The Newcastle biomedical research centre is supported by NIHR and is a partnership between Newcastle Hospitals and Newcastle University.

Based on the Campus for Ageing and Vitality, the centre focusses on improving lives through testing and developing new approaches to tackling health problems associated with ageing and long-term conditions.

Areas of research include dementia, liver disease, musculoskeletal disease, neuromuscular disease, skin and oral disease.

The John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre runs multidisciplinary children and adult clinics for over 2500 NHS patients per year with a range of neuromuscular diseases (those that affect the nerves that control certain muscles in your body) throughout the north of England.

The North East Innovation Lab works to assess and accelerate the development of new diagnostic tests and technologies.

Our team of NHS scientists offers a wide range of services, covering everything needed to scientifically evaluate and validate new diagnostics, including access to a biobank of clinical samples.

Our Novopath lab provides high-quality diagnostic research services, delivered by a team of biomedical scientists with wide expertise in cellular pathology.

Providing specialist tissue pathology services, we use innovative diagnostic techniques for biomarker identification of diseases such as cancer, using multispectral digital imaging scanners.

Our biobank stores millions of clinical samples with their associated metadata for use by industry, healthcare and academics. We can search archived hospital samples and arrange prospective collections.