ROYAL FREE LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Their core work

The Royal Free London is a major NHS teaching hospital in London with deep clinical expertise in liver disease and renal medicine. In H2020, they contribute as a clinical partner — running patient cohorts, recruiting for trials, and providing real-world hospital data for medical device and therapeutic development. Their involvement spans liver dialysis devices, haemodialysis comparison studies, and hepatitis B vaccine trials, reflecting their strength as a site where advanced therapies meet everyday patient care.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (2017-2018) centred on organ failure — specifically liver dialysis devices and extracorporeal support for conditions like hepatic encephalopathy and hepatorenal syndrome. From 2018 onward, their scope broadened into renal medicine and infectious disease, with the most recent project (TherVacB, 2020) moving into therapeutic vaccine development for hepatitis B. The trajectory suggests a shift from device-based interventions toward biological therapies and comparative effectiveness research.

Moving from organ-support devices toward immunotherapy and comparative effectiveness studies, suggesting growing interest in prevention-oriented and cost-effectiveness research.

How they like to work

The Royal Free participates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator — consistent with an NHS hospital contributing clinical infrastructure rather than leading research design. With 39 unique partners across 11 countries from just 3 projects, they join large, well-funded consortia. This makes them a reliable clinical site partner: they bring patients, data, and hospital infrastructure without competing for scientific leadership.

Despite only 3 projects, they have collaborated with 39 distinct partners across 11 countries, indicating they join large pan-European clinical consortia. Their network is broad rather than deep, typical of a hospital that serves as one of multiple trial sites.

What sets them apart

As a major London NHS hospital, the Royal Free brings something most research institutions cannot: direct access to large, diverse patient populations within one of Europe's biggest healthcare systems. Their dual expertise in liver and renal medicine is relatively unusual and positions them well for projects requiring multi-organ clinical data. For consortium builders, they offer a credible UK clinical site with proven ability to recruit patients for EU-funded trials.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ALIVER
  Their largest project (EUR 433,750) developing a liver dialysis device — an area where few NHS trusts participate in EU-funded medical device development.
• TherVacB
  Their most recent project (running until 2026), positioning the hospital in therapeutic vaccine trials for hepatitis B cure — a high-impact global health challenge.