The Integrated COVID Hub North East is the first of its kind in the UK and aims to lead the fight against the virus through delivering: accurate and fast testing; cutting edge science and robust data analysis.

The hub is a partnership between NHS organisations, Newcastle City Council, local universities, public health and industry. It is managed by The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Facilities include:

• A “Lighthouse laboratory” at Baltic Park, Gateshead, offering increased testing capacity.
• Specialist resources to share and analyse information for outbreak management and rapid response.
• A dedicated innovation laboratory, based at the Biosphere at Newcastle Helix, accommodating new technologies and methods for the next stage of COVID science.

We are working closely with the innovation laboratory to help enable rapid adoption of diagnostics into high volume testing facilities. This will involve linking the development needs of industry and academia with the capability and assets of Newcastle Hospitals.

We have close interaction with a Diagnostic Evaluation Healthcare Scientist who is based at the Innovation Lab. This enables cross fertilisation between the Innovation Lab and the NIHR Newcastle MIC on processes involving: device and test development; quantitative and qualitative data management and analysis and implementation to ensure that research is reproducible and auditable.

For more information about the Innovation Lab and the Integrated COVID Hub North East visit this link.