About us

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Bringing people together and leading research

We are at the heart of efforts to improve healthcare and the long-term prevention and treatment of disease.

The BioResource is committed to bringing together researchers and willing volunteers to contribute to leading research that will benefit everyone. 

Our Mission

To facilitate human health research and its transformation into medical practice.

We achieve this by:

  • recruiting and engaging with active participants, who volunteer to work with the BioResource and our partners.
  • collaborating with leading research groups in academia, NHS and industry to rapidly translate the findings in the lab into benefits for the clinic.
  • developing effective and efficient systems to provide rapid, consistent and valuable integrated access to samples, data and resources to tackle healthcare challenges.
  • building effective, added-value partnerships with health research groups, organisations, companies and charities that maximise the value of our research, systems and resources for healthcare improvement.
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Map of the United Kingdom showing the location of 18 BioResource centres

The NIHR BioResource is part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and wellbeing and promotes economic growth.

The NIHR BioResource national coordinating centre is located in Cambridge and is hosted by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Cambridge.

There are currently 18 local BioResource Centres across England. Each BioResource Centre is connected to the corresponding local Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), which is another National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) supported infrastructure.

How our volunteers help us make health research happen

Take a look at our 2 minute animation that explains what happens to your blood or saliva sample when you join the BioResource

Get in touch

If you are interested in finding out more about the BioResource or if you have questions, email us at nbr@bioresource.nihr.ac.uk

Email us
Volunteer seated looking at nurse who is holding vials of blood and putting them into a bag

What we do

We support health research by recruiting and maintaining a resource of data and samples donated by over 300,000 volunteers. We can also recall those volunteers to participate in further research based on specific genetic data or health and lifestyle criteria as set by researchers.

Our misson

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Publications

The BioResource is proud to collaborate with leading researchers in a wide variety of disciplines and disease areas to contribute to new research. We regularly update the list of BioResource-supported research studies as they are published.

Our publications

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How we are governed

Our governance, leadership and transparency are vital to our work.

Governance and Management

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Our cohorts

Our participants help to drive genetic and health research. We recruit participants in three key cohorts: rare diseases, common diseases and healthy populations.

Our cohorts

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Our partners

We're proud to partner with leading organisations in medical research.

Our partners

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Get in touch

We welcome enquiries. You can call us on 0800 090 2233 or email us at nbr@bioresource.nihr.ac.uk

We have 18 BioResource Centres across England with contact details available via our Centres & Programmes page if you need to get in touch with your local Centre. 

Interested in working with us? Head to our vacancies page and find out about working at the BioResource.