About us
The NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre is part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London.
Credit: Age Without Limits
Since the establishment of the NIHR Maudsley BRC in 2007, our researchers have worked consistently to improve the mental and neurological health of people across the UK and internationally. We have found new ways of understanding and treating neurological and mental health conditions which affect millions of people globally – from chronic pain to depression to motor neurone disease. We are pioneering research across psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience, including/particularly in AI and data-driven approaches to create a more scalable and personalised healthcare system for the future. Our research works across the lifespan, treating the person as a whole within the context of their physical health and their community.
For example our research has contributed to the development of new migraine medications, digital therapies for those with psychosis, early preventative interventions for eating disorders and novel ways to treat opioid overdoses in the community. We have developed natural language processing tools to extract valuable insights from text in health records, technologies to make brain scanning more accessible, new ways to analyse the contribution of genetics to mental health and innovative approaches to improve the efficiency and representation of clinical trials.
NIHR Biomedical Research Centres
The NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and wellbeing and promotes economic growth. It manages research and development within the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
We are part of the NIHR infrastructure and one of 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) in England. BRCs are collaborations between universities and NHS organisations. They bring together academics and clinicians to translate novel scientific discoveries into potential new treatments, diagnostics and technologies. In 2022, the NIHR awarded £816 million until 2028 to 20 BRCs across England. Our BRC focuses on mental health and neurology. One of only two BRCs with this remit, we co-founded the Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration alongside Oxford Health BRC to bring benefit across the nation.
Our host NHS trust, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, provides the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK. Our partner university is King’s College London, and its faculty the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience is consistently among the highest ranked institutions for psychology and psychiatry in the world (US News 2025-26).
Through our research we aim to create impact aligned with the NHS’s 10 Year Health Plan for England:
- From hospital to community: the Neighbourhood Health Service, designed around you
- From analogue to digital: power in your hands
- From sickness to prevention: power to make the healthy choice
How we work
People with lived experience of mental health are core to our research – from shaping and influencing strategy, to research delivery and dissemination of our findings. Our Lived Experience Experts guide our research priorities and our Lived Experience theme supports researchers across our partnerships to embed this approach in everything we do.
Our location in south London means we work with one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the UK.
We are managed and governed by an Executive Board, Management Committee and external independent Scientific Advisory Board. We are part of King’s Health Partners.
Our research: 4 priorities, 10 themes
With input from patients and carers, we have developed 4 priorities for our research which are aligned with impact:
- Whole person care – we join up mental and physical health in every condition we study, to improve outcomes for both.
- Precision psychiatry – we are developing tests to understand who would benefit from which treatment, and expand the options available to them.
- Translational informatics – we use real-world data and advanced informatics to guide clinical care and public health.
- New prevention and treatment approaches – we are developing new ways to identify, prevent and deliver treatments for the many mental health conditions which do not currently have effective treatments.
10 research themes
We group our research into themes, which focus on conditions related to mental and brain health across the lifespan; and developing novel methods, technologies and platforms to support our research.
Brain and Mental Health
- Child Mental Health and Neurological Disorders
- Eating Disorders and Obesity
- Motor Neuron Disease
- Pain and Addictions
- Psychosis and Mood Disorders
Technology and Methods Themes
- Digital Therapies
- Experimental Medicine and Therapeutics
- Neuroimaging
- Informatics
- Trials, Prediction and Genomics
Spanning across all these themes are the NIHR Maudsley BioResource, our Research Inclusion, and Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement programmes, and Research Career Development.
Explore our research
We are researching new tests, treatments and technologies to better understand and support mental health conditions - explore our ten research themes.
Our infrastructure and training
Mental health conditions represent some of the greatest challenges to our individual health and well-being and to the collective growth and success of the UK economy. Yet mental health research has previously been a neglected area. Our infrastructure is changing this to achieve equity in mental health research. This includes cutting-edge research facilities, resources and data platforms, as well as expert clinical research staff, technicians and technology specialists.
Our infrastructure bridges the gap between basic discovery research and early phase clinical trials. Our funding is used to support our researchers to develop multi stakeholder alliances and partnerships to advance our mental health research strategy and to attract new funding. We build capacity in mental health research through a range of training programmes to ensure a new generation of researchers are ready to meet future healthcare challenges.
We are closely linked to the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility as well as numerous local and national academic, industry and charity partners.