NIHR Clinical Research Facility: Sheffield

Providing excellence in clinical research delivery

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Facility (CRF): Sheffield is part of the NIHR and hosted by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Sheffield.

The NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and wellbeing and promotes economic growth.

NIHR Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) are purpose-built facilities in NHS hospitals where researchers can conduct studies. The NIHR has awarded £161 million over 5 years to 28 CRF facilities across England, to support early-phase and complex studies.

In 2022, the NIHR CRF: Sheffield was awarded £7.9m in funding which will support the development and testing of new treatments for diseases, many of which currently have no cure. This funding award covers 2022 to 2029.

Read more about the NIHR CRF: Sheffield and the work we do

The NIHR is 20!

It's the NIHR's 20th anniversary! Since 2006 the NIHR has been driving life-changing research for the health and wealth of the nation - funded by the public, for the public.

For NIHR20, we are celebrating the impact we have made. We will be marking some of our most significant past achievements, reflecting on shared successes with our partners and extraordinary research community, and looking forward to the future.

For more details see the NIHR website.

Key Statistics

News & events

First Sheffield CAR T MS patient: “Best Birthday Gift Ever”

A Rotherham man has become the first patient at STH and the seventh participant in a global trial to receive CAR T-cell therapy as a potential “one-and-done” treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).

Numan Unees was diagnosed with MS six years ago and rapidly lost his ability to walk. He received the CAR T-cell therapy obecabtagene autoleucel, also known as obe-cel, at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital as part of a landmark clinical trial just two days before his 40th birthday, saying it was the “best birthday gift ever”.

The phase I AUTO1-MS1 trial, which is running in four UK sites including Sheffield, is one of the first to test the safety of CAR T-cell therapy as a treatment for MS.

CAR T-cell therapy is a novel therapy where a patient’s white cells are genetically engineered to seek and destroy abnormal immune cells causing disease, leading to a resetting of the immune system.

It has shown huge promise in the treatment of some blood cancers, with patients achieving long-term remission after having failed multiple standard treatments.

(July 2026)