Research Collaborations

University of Birmingham researchers collaborate with colleagues all over the world, with numerous research projects conducted within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences involving an international collaborator. We collaborate with partners in high income countries, such as those in Europe and the USA, as well as working with low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) on Global Health projects.

Our collaborations with low and middle-income countries are supported by the Global Health Research Network, which exists to promote, develop and support the global health research portfolio in LMICs, across disciplines within the College and across the University. We have also established the Global Health Impact Hub, to facilitate our multi-disciplinary research and health policy impact work, as well as education and capacity building.

Delivering safe and effective surgical care across the world is one of the greatest challenges facing global health today. We are improving surgical outcomes through collaborative research.
Professor Dion Morton OBE, Co-Director, NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery led by Birmingham.

Examples of our international/global research collaborations:

Inflammation & Multimorbidity:

The University of Birmingham’s NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery has worked with international partners to launch research networks of over 20,000 clinicians from over 100 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent, South-East Asia and Central America, aiming to improve surgical outcomes for patients through collaborative research and by building surgical research capacity in lower and middle income countries.

Supported by an agreement with the Indian National Health Authority, the Global Surgery Unit works with 30 Indian hospitals to tackle preventable post-surgical complications.

Population Health:

The BactiVac Network, run by the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, brings together 1,400 academic, industrial and other partners from across 78 countries to save lives through accelerating the development and use of vaccines against bacterial infections relevant to low-middle income countries (LMICs).

Women’s Health:

Researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Global Women’s Health, led by the University of Birmingham, led a global effort to tackle bleeding after childbirth, called E-MOTIVE. The study involved over 200,000 women in four countries, and found that a new set of interventions led to a 60% reduction in heavy bleeding. They also a saw a significant reduction in the rate of blood transfusions for bleeding, particularly relevant for low-income countries where blood is a limited and expensive resource.

Partnerships:

Foellinger Auditorium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Birmingham-Illinois BRIDGE Fellowship programme brings together international research teams in the UK and USA, contributing to the research and academic excellence of both institutions across key research areas that address major global challenges. Within our College, we have a fellowship focused on traumatic brain injury and another transatlantic collaboration researching healthy ageing and cognitive decline. New collaborations are also exploring perinatal mental health disparities in a global context.

The College has strong connections in China and have been working collaboratively to help build capacity in primary care. Working with partners, we have delivered professional development training to more than 800 GPs across China. In 2018, we also opened a joint Research Institute in the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Centre to utilise our 30,000-strong ‘Birth Cohort’ data for studies into inherited and environmental factors contributing to disease.

The College’s Institute of Microbiology and Infection is at the forefront of innovative research into combatting antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance. Supported by the Visiting Fellows Scheme, work is underway on joint authorships with an exchange of researchers from Brazil undertaking work at the laboratories in Birmingham.