About Us
Founded in 2001, the Northern Institute for Cancer Research (NICR) currently house a dedicated team of over 200 clinicians and scientists. It is a multidisciplinary research institute that has seen significant investment and improvement in its infrastructure over the past decade.
In 2004, the laboratory bioscience groups of the NICR moved into the new award-winning £10m Paul O’Gorman building; we received a £4.5m grant from the Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) and £5.5m donated by the charities Cancer Research UK and Children with Leukaemia.
In 2009, the institute became Cancer Research UK's Newcastle Cancer Centre, a centre of excellence in cancer, as part of a Cancer Research UK driven initiative.
Our research capabilities
In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2008), 75 per cent of the research was classed as internationally excellent and a further 15 per cent as world leading.
Laboratory research is based in the Faculties of Medical Sciences and Science, Agriculture and Engineering at Newcastle University. Clinical research is conducted at Newcastle General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Gateshead) and the Freeman Hospital.
Our clinical trials programmes are extensive and NICR is a:
- Cancer Research UK Phase I/II Key Centre
- UK Children’s Cancer Study Group Centre for Biological and Pharmacological Studies
- National Translational Cancer Research Network Centre
NICR staff are members of various European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) groups including:
- Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group
- Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanism Group
In addition to extramural clinical research, the intramural NICR programme seeks to identify two targets for therapeutic exploitation, and one drug for clinical evaluation, each year.
