The University of Southampton Primary Medical Care Group has been admitted to the NIHR School for Primary Care Research鈥� from October 2009. The School is a national initiative funded by the Department of Health鈥� to increase the evidence base for the development of general practice and primary health care鈥� through collaborative programmes of research.
Membership of the School is limited to top-performing primary care departments鈥� and the Southampton group was selected on the basis of its excellent showing in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise鈥� when 85% of its research was rated as 鈥榠nternationally excellent鈥� or 鈥榳orld-leading鈥�.
The Southampton group joins a select group of departments which also includes Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford, and University College London. The School receives 拢3 million per annum in funding, which is distributed between the member departments to fund programmes of collaborative research.
Tony Kendrick, who is Head of the PMC group and Associate Dean for Clinical Research in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 gratifying to have the international excellence of our research recognised in this way, and the five year funding awarded through the School will enable us to develop our applied health research programme in collaboration with colleagues both within Southampton and in other member departments nationally.鈥�