New COVID-19 vaccine research facility to open in Portsmouth

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU), in collaboration with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), has secured funding to open a new COVID-19 vaccine research facility in the city.

Located at the John Pounds Centre, the Portsmouth Research Hub will open later this month to help deliver additional COVID-19 vaccine trials, as prioritised by the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce.

As the NHS rollout of approved vaccines progresses, research trials into other COVID-19 vaccine candidates will continue to collect important information such as which vaccines work best for different groups of people and which vaccines offer the most protection against variants of concern.

The Portsmouth Research Hub will provide local residents with the opportunity to take part in COVID-19 vaccine research and help researchers answer these questions.

Professor Anoop Chauhan, Director of Research and Innovation at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, said:

“We’re excited to be expanding our COVID-19 vaccine trial programme and opening a new research facility in Portsmouth.

“Thousands of local volunteers have already taken part in COVID-19 vaccine research and we’re pleased that the new Portsmouth Research Hub will create more opportunities for people to get involved.”

“We need people from every part of the UK population to consider taking part in COVID-19 vaccine research so that we can continue to find a range of safe and effective vaccines to help us tackle the global pandemic.

“We’re calling on the people of Portsmouth who are interested in taking part in COVID-19 vaccine research to visit the NHS COVID-19 Vaccine Research Registry to find out more and sign up.”

The NHS COVID-19 Vaccine Research Registry, which enables the UK public to support the national effort to speed up vaccine research, was launched in July last year. Since then, over 450,000 people have already signed up, giving their permission to be contacted about taking part in COVID-19 vaccine research.

The UK public can continue to support the national effort to speed up vaccine research and receive more information about volunteering for future vaccine studies by visiting www.nhs.uk/researchcontact.