BARTS AND THE LONDON NHS TRUST

Their core work

Barts and The London NHS Trust is a major London-based hospital trust that contributes clinical expertise and patient cohorts to European health research. Their H2020 involvement spans vascular surgery (aortic aneurysm repair), blood cancers (leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma), and infectious disease (hepatitis B cure research). They bring real-world patient data, clinical trial capacity, and specialist medical knowledge to large research consortia, acting as a clinical partner rather than a basic science lab.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their earliest H2020 work (2017) centered on surgical intervention — specifically aortic aneurysm repair and spinal cord protection during complex vascular procedures. By the later period (2017-2020 start dates), focus shifted decisively toward disease-specific research in blood cancers and viral hepatitis, with growing emphasis on big data platforms for patient outcomes and therapeutic vaccine development. The trajectory moves from procedural surgical research toward data-driven disease treatment and cure-oriented clinical trials.

Moving toward data-intensive, disease-cure-oriented clinical research — particularly in infectious disease and oncology — making them a strong candidate for future therapeutic and vaccine development consortia.

How they like to work

Barts exclusively participates as a partner, never as coordinator, which is typical for NHS hospital trusts contributing clinical infrastructure to researcher-led projects. With 102 unique partners across 17 countries from just 3 projects, they operate within very large consortia (averaging 34+ partners per project). This signals an organization comfortable in big, multi-site clinical networks where their role is delivering patient access and clinical data rather than managing the research agenda.

Despite only 3 projects, Barts has collaborated with 102 unique partners across 17 countries, reflecting their participation in large pan-European clinical research networks. Their network is broad and primarily European, driven by the scale of the consortia they join.

What sets them apart

As a major NHS hospital trust in London, Barts offers something most research institutes cannot: direct access to large, diverse patient populations for clinical trials and real-world outcome data. Their strength is not in lab research but in clinical execution — recruiting patients, running trial sites, and providing the real-life data that validates what bench scientists develop. For any consortium needing a UK-based clinical trial site with experience across oncology, hepatology, and vascular surgery, Barts is a proven and reliable partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• HARMONY
  Massive pan-European big data initiative covering six types of blood cancer, building a real-life patient data platform — Barts' largest funded H2020 project (EUR 167K).
• TherVacB
  Ambitious therapeutic vaccine project aiming to cure hepatitis B, with Barts contributing patient stratification and clinical trial capacity through 2026.
• PAPA-ARTIS
  Longest-running project (2017-2024) addressing a high-stakes surgical problem — preventing paralysis during aortic aneurysm repair via randomized controlled trial.