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Partnerships

Purpose-led partnerships

Through collaborative knowledge sharing with like-minded, ambitious partners across academia, industry, and government, we are focused on accelerating the UK's position as a global centre for excellence in life sciences. Working with constructive impatience, our goal is to transform healthcare through fast, equitable access to the most effective medicines and high-quality care. We invest to prove new models via ambitious, purpose-led partnerships with the NHS and beyond, taking innovation to scale, transform patient and population health outcomes and driving practice change to address the areas of greatest need in the UK.

With a proven history of tackling some of the nation's toughest health issues and focusing on areas of greatest need, we believe we can address the challenges that prevent patients from receiving fast, equitable access to the latest innovations in health protection, chronic disease, rare diseases and cancer. We will use our resources and expertise to deliver sustainable leadership for the health of patients, our business, our workforce and the planet.

We believe that working together is essential to advancing research, improving equitable access to medicines, and supporting the transformation of care pathways in a way that improves outcomes for all patients in the UK.

Working with the NHS we have hundreds of partnerships focused on early diagnosis and delivering faster and more equitable access to evidence based medicines which prevent progression and keep people out of hospital. Find out more about our Purpose-led Partnerships:  

Who we work with

 

The NHS

 

Government and policy makers

 

Patient groups

 

UK healthcare professionals

Grants

AstraZeneca UK aims to support local innovation and best practice that improves patient care in Respiratory and Immunology (R&I), Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM), and Oncology therapy areas. Grants are a reactive provision of monetary support by AstraZeneca to an approved requesting organisation for the purposes of achieving a specific defined outcome. Grants may be awarded to Healthcare Organisations, Patient Organisations or Charities involved in patient support. The Grants process does not accept Externally Sponsored Research or Product Donation requests (these are reviewed via alternative processes).

Once you have submitted your grant application, your request will be reviewed by committee. The committee will be looking for a clear alignment to at least one of AstraZeneca's Medical Missions for practice change AND clear advancement in UK clinical practice (with potential to scale UK-wide) AND/OR impact on reducing health inequalities aligned to AstraZeneca's Medical Missions.

The total review time can be up to 10-12 weeks, therefore please allow sufficient time to apply before the proposed project/activity start date. We will contact you by email with the outcome.

Grants are provided by AstraZeneca without intent or agreement for AstraZeneca to receive any benefit in exchange (a mere display of the AstraZeneca logo or name is not considered a benefit).

Young Health Programme UK charity partnership

Our charity partnerships

At AstraZeneca we are passionate about giving back to our local communities.

Through our ambitious, purpose-led partnerships with research institutions, universities, and charities, we create added value for the UK's life sciences ecosystem to flourish and be a major engine of economic recovery as we move beyond the pandemic.

In 2020, in partnership with Plan International UK, we launched the Young Health Programme UK. The programme is helping young people realise their right to good mental health and wellbeing, regardless of gender. It aims to reach 130,000 young people by 2025 through local community programming, UK-wide research, advocacy, and events.

Young Health Programme UK charity partnership

We support a number of charities across our UK sites and our employees are actively involved in fundraising throughout the year. We want to get as many of our employees as possible to come together through volunteering. Every permanent member of staff has at least one day a year of office time allocated for them to be involved in a volunteering project.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at AstraZeneca UK

Our investment in STEM programmes aims to inspire the next generation of scientist leaders and build diverse and inclusive talent pipeline for the future.

Our STEM Outreach programme in the UK supports grassroots activities in local schools, including our Enthuse Partnership school network, as well as developing partnerships with local STEM organisations.

We have developed a range of STEM resources focusing on Keystage 2 (Ages 7-11) and Keystage 3 (Ages 11-14) – which are curriculum based and delivered using our innovative STEM Virtual World providing a STEM Ambassador avatar-led experience.

We are continually broadening our geographic reach by partnering with UK STEM organisations, societies and institutions, with a focus on reaching underrepresented populations and communities.

STEM programmes at AstraZeneca UK

More than 100 of our employees in the UK are STEM volunteers and their involvement includes working with:

STEM programmes at AstraZeneca UK

The Cambridge Science Centre, helping 60,000 children and young adults a year discover life sciences.

The University of Cambridge Festival, through outreach activities, panel sessions and sponsorships.

The Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology and wider UTC network, through an annual Medicine Makers challenge for 14-18-year-olds and joint outreach activities.

The Cambridge United Foundation, Macclesfield FC Community Trust and Everton in the Community – Active Science Programmes – including 'Meet a Scientist' sessions.

STEM Learning Enthuse Partnerships building strong links with partner schools around UK.

GB-68952 | DOP: July 2025