The University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust have strengthened their partnership with a new agreement that will improve healthcare practices and outcomes for people living in the city and county.

The strengthened partnership will explore opportunities for collaboration in relation to education and training, research and innovation, estates and infrastructure, people and shared civic responsibilities.

Over the next five years the university and NUH will find new and improved ways to attract, train and retain high quality healthcare students and recruit and support highly qualified healthcare professionals who can shape the future of services in their field.

There will also be an increased focus on research and innovation opportunities, with the aim of enhancing the process of getting life-changing research from lab to hospital.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West and NUH CEO Anthony May signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to the shared aims of the partnership. Commenting on the new agreement Professor West said: “A huge amount of hard work has already been delivered to get us to where we are today, and this new agreement will take the excellent working relationships between the university and the Trust to the next level.

We now have a long-term plan to work ever more closely together to bring even bigger healthcare benefits to the communities we serve.”

Under the new agreement the university and NUH will also work together to provide a range of improvements for students including: new spaces for study, welfare and teaching, improved systems and processes for managing placements and monitoring the healthcare needs of NUH and aligning student training with these.

Anthony May, Chief Executive of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We are incredibly proud of our University Hospital status and our close working relationship with the University of Nottingham.

This agreement will further strengthen that partnership and we are all committed to making it work for the benefit of our patients, our staff and the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.”

The two organisations have worked together to drive innovation in experimental science through the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre since 2017, which has recently begun a new five-year programme of translational research.

This will be built upon further with a focus on improving the processes for undertaking joint research and increasing opportunities to access research solutions to address unmet clinical needs and opportunities for commercialisation in healthcare and healthcare technology.

Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Tim Guyler, Assistant Chief Executive at NUH will lead the implementation of the partnership.

Professor Van-Tam said: “I am delighted that the university and NHS Trust have united in this way to accelerate and deepen our partnerships to improve healthcare and outcomes for the people of Nottingham.

This will underpin our joint interests in recruiting and retaining the best healthcare professionals for the city’s medical facilities and ensure that the city’s patients can benefit from the latest research innovations in medicine and clinical practice.”