Scotland has followed the example of Great Britain and established the Scottish Academic Health Sciences Collaboration, a partnership among four university medical schools and associated hospitals that’s designed to speed the translation of research into clinical practice. The partnership brings together the university medical schools in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow to provide a platform for greater collaboration with industry. The initiative was launched with £15 million from the Scottish government’s Chief Scientist Office. A board comprised of representatives from the eight partners and Scottish Enterprise will manage the collaboration, with Harry Burns, the Scottish government’s chief medical officer, serving as chair. Last year, Great Britain underwent a major reorganization of its leading university medical schools and their associated teaching hospitals, creating American-style Academic Health Science Centers (AHSC) at University College London, Imperial College London, Cambridge, and Manchester. The model is gaining traction in other parts of Europe, as well. The Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm plans to migrate to an AHSC structure, and the model has been introduced at University College Dublin, which has formed Dublin Academic Healthcare with its affiliated hospitals, the Mater University Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital. Ireland’s medical schools also are partners in a separate entity, Molecular Medicine Ireland, which aims to coordinate biomedical research and education on a national basis.

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Posted July 1st, 2009 under Tech Transfer

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