How Bradford has become the leading research hospital in England - John Wright

While you are rubbing your eyes in disbelief, let me tell you how this incredible transition from research desert to research champions has happened.

Twenty years ago Bradford Royal Infirmary was a district general hospital lacking any research infrastructure. Unlike Bradford’s teaching hospital in other cities in the UK, Bradford had no gleaming ivory towers of medical science. It did however have some of the highest rates of ill health in the country.

This paradox of high levels of illness and low levels of medical research was the motivation for establishing the Bradford Institute for Health Research in 2007. There was an inverse research law whereby most research was taking place where it was least needed, places such as Oxford and Cambridge. We were determined to rebalance this inequity and ensure the people of Bradford and Yorkshire benefited from the latest advances in science and medicine.

And what a journey. The brilliant Born in Bradford study is tracking the lives of 30,000 Bradfordians and helping us to understand how to improve health and wellbeing. Our Born and Bred In (BaBi) network is helping to spread this learning across the UK. Our amazing Age of Wonder project is one of the biggest studies of adolescents in the world. Our CARE75+ study is helping us understand how to live better as we grow older. Bradford Genes and Health is helping to explore our DNA and accelerate new drug discovery.

Bradford will be celebrating a razzamatazz UK City of Culture in 2025 but with the incredible support from the people of Bradford, it has quietly and diligently been establishing itself as a City of Research.

In a world which is swamped with gloomy news, this is a story of Yorkshire pride. Health research is vitally important for all our lives, and for the growth of the UK more generally. It helps to develop innovative treatments and better health care. The more research your local hospital does, the better the quality of care you get – clinical staff tend to be at the cutting edge.

Research is key to the economic growth of the country, a global leader in life sciences, with businesses generating over £100bn each year and employing over 300,000 people.

There are some useful lessons from Bradford’s success. The foundation has been in close partnership with communities to build trust and co-produce research that reflects their needs and gives them agency.

There is much work to do. Life expectancy is, for the first time in recorded history, falling in sections of UK society. We have an ageing population with complex multi-morbidity. Our teenagers are suffering from high rates of anxiety, depression and loneliness. Our NHS is creaking under demand. We must do more to understand and tackle the social, economic and environmental determinants of health.

However for a brief moment we will stop and celebrate this extraordinary people-powered Yorkshire success. Bradford: Champions of England 2023/24. Now all we need is an open top bus that can carry 25,000 people through the city.

Professor John Wright leads the Bradford Institute for Health Research.