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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/D039614/1
Title: Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC)
Principal Investigator: Barlow, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Kagioglou, Professor M Price, Professor A Gray, Professor C
Williams, Professor D Aouad, Professor G Green, Professor S
Gann, Professor D
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
ActivePlan Solutions Ltd Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust ArcHealth
Architects for Health Berkshire Healthcare NHS Fdn Trust Brighton and Sussex Uni Hosp NHS Trust
BWB Consulting Chalmers University of Technology Clean Modules Ltd
Complexity Solutions Ltd Davis Langdon Eric Wright Group
Health Facilities Scotland Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals Huazhong University of Science and Techn
IBM UK Ltd Inter Academy for Design and Health UK Leicester City Council
Leicestershire County Council Lend Lease Loughborough University
Mace Manchester City Council MaST LIFT
Mersey Care NHS Trust MJ Medical National Audit Office
NHS P and HS Architects Purdue University
Salford Royal Hospital Tribal Group plc UCL
Uni Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust University of Illinois Unlimited Potential
Wates Construction West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust West Sussex Primary Care Trust
Willmott Dixon Construction/Housing World Agency of Planetary Monitoring and YRM Architects
Department: Imperial College Business School
Organisation: Imperial College London
Scheme: IMRC (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 June 2006 Ends: 31 May 2011 Value (£): 7,236,672
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Construction Ops & Management Design Engineering
Mathematical Aspects of OR
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Construction Healthcare
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Modernising the UK's health and social care system is a priority for government and for the country as a whole. To do this, wide ranging organisational and funding reforms are being put in place. An unprecedented investment to renew the built and technical infrastructure for delivering care is also underway: new hospitals and primary care centres are being built, information and communication technology is being upgraded and new technologies for diagnosing and treating disease are being introduced. If world-class infrastructure is to be delivered, this investment must achieve its full potential. The aim of HaCIRIC is to establish a new research centre to help accomplish this. HaCIRIC's focus is on the built and technical infrastructure for health and social care, and the interaction between infrastructure specification and the way patients are treated. Improving the way this is planned, delivered and managed is at the core of HaCIRIC's activity. What are the challenges? The health and social care system is one of the most complex and rapidly changing organisational and technical environments in any sector of the economy. Many stakeholders are involved in delivering care, funding mechanisms are convoluted, and patterns of demand and use are changing, as are government health policies. All this places new pressures on the underlying infrastructure. These are compounded by two problems. First, there is an historic legacy of out-dated buildings and cultures within the care system. Second, the life cycles of the various elements of the infrastructure / buildings, medical and information technology / are mismatched. Each involves complex supply chains, multiple users with their own needs and differing institutional and funding arrangements. All these have to be reconciled. For example, the current PFI programme for new hospitals involves supply contracts for thirty years or more, but incorporates technologies which have five year life cycles to help deliver diagnostics and therapies which are undergoing rapid evolutionary change. Modernising the health and social care infrastructure will therefore require innovative approaches. HaCIRIC will help develop the tools and processes which will embed 'innovation as normal business' amongst those responsible for delivering the investment in infrastructure. Its research programme has been developed in partnership with all the key stakeholders from the care system, including the Department of Health, the NHS, the Department of Trade and Industry and the supply industries. Seven research themes have been identified:- Managing innovation in a context of technological change- Procurement for innovation- Innovative design and construction- Care delivery practices- Delivering improved performance through operations management- Knowledge management in complex systems - Design and evaluation of integrated systems HaCIRIC is a collaboration between existing research centres at Imperial College London and the Universities of Loughborough, Reading and Salford. Additional partners from other universities, industry and the care system will be involved in specific research projects. Together this represents a resource valued at more than 11m, of which 7.0m consists of EPSRC support, 2.9m is from the four existing research centres, 500,000 is from the Department of Trade and Industry and 720,000 is from industrial partners. HaCIRIC will therefore represent a substantial resource and a unique capability in skills and knowledge to find solutions to the key healthcare infrastructure problems of the 21st century.
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Organisation Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk