About the HBRC

The facility sits within a purpose-built, fully-equipped building that was funded through the Advantage West Midlands Science City Translational Medicine Programme, with investment from University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Birmingham and the Medical Research Council.

We are committed to demystifying biobanks and openly engaging with the public, so if you would like to visit our facility, please contact us.

While we are underwritten by the University's College of Medicine and Health, our annual running costs need to be offset via a recharging model that is proportional to the level and nature of access to our samples. We focus our activities focus towards local researchers, and we encourage approaches from the international and commercial communities.

• The HBRC operates under a licence from the Human Tissue Authority (licence number 12358).
• On a day-to-day basis, we work to a strict Quality Management System that looks after everything we do.
• We report to the University's Human Tissue Oversight Committee every quarter, which oversees our governance and provides ethical, scientific and operational direction.
• We operate an Access Review Panel to ensure that requests for samples and data come from reputable researchers, and that use will be for ethical, scientifically valid projects. Our panel is staffed by members of the public, as well as NHS and University professionals.
• Our generic protocol has been approved since April 2010, by the “North West - Haydock” Research Ethics Committee, run by the Healthcare Research Authority. Renewed approval is sought every 5 years. Our initial reference was 09/H1010/75, then it became 15/NW/0079, then 20/NW/0001, and now it is 25/NW/0013.