Development of the south east wales academic health science partnership industry strategy

Resumo

Introduction: The South East Wales Academic Health Science Partnership (SEWAHSP) is a partnership between the universities, health boards; and NHS trusts in the South East of Wales. The Industry group aims through collaboration to attract commercial investment to innovate, deliver, translate and promote excellent research to increase the health and wealth of the population of Wales and beyond.

Objective: • To develop existing and new partnerships with industry, particularly pharmaceutical and technology sectors: • To take ideas through to production; • To deliver excellent commercial research; • To grow the commercial research portfolio; • To promote and publish successful and high impact research.

Methodology or experience description: An initial consensus workshop was convened in January 2013 that participants were invited from all sectors in the South East of Wales: academia, NHS Trusts, Local Health Boards and Industry. Key presentations were given from business, industry, government, academia and clinicians to set the scene for discussions. There were four workshops during the day to establish: our unique selling point, how to achieve the unique selling point, and what are the processes and functions of collaborative partners to be successful. Key principles of consensus methodology are that they are inclusive, provide opportunity for detailed topic examination and debate while encouraging negotiation and agreement.

Results: The unique selling point: An established, professional and effective, integrated strategic alliance with high capacity for world class innovative research delivery and training with access to a population of interest to industry using targeted patient databases to identify patients for large screening studies. The SEWAHSP workshop identified some key characteristics of an industry research ready organisation. These include being: • Customer focused; • Accountable; • Confident; • Honest & ethical; • Reliable; • Competitive, cost effective & value for money; • Ahead of the game; • Commercial, contractual and intellectual property alert.

Conclusions or Hypothesis: The uniqueness of this alliance is that we have shared goals, formal collaborative links, are proactive and working with industry is considered a priority. This has led to the development of new commercial activities across the partnership, streamlining of processes for feasibility and permissions.