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Our mission is to lead discovery, innovation and education in surgical sciences.

Picture of NDS staff at the 2023 NDS Away Day, taken outside in the grounds of St Catherine's, Oxford.

Formerly the Nuffield Department of Surgery, we are the academic department of surgery at the University of Oxford, and hosts a multidisciplinary team of senior clinical academic surgeons, senior scientists, junior clinicians and scientists in training. We comprise of major surgical specialties including gastro-intestinal, transplantation, vascular, paediatric, plastic, ear, nose and throat (ENT), neurosurgery, and urology. Over 150 staff work in the department with an annual budget of over £10 million.

Our research includes a long-established immunology, tolerance and transplantation biology group, well established groups in bone cancer biology, islet-cell isolation and transplantation, cardiovascular, interventional radiology and functional neurosurgical groups, high intensity focused ultrasound and urological oncology.

In recent years, the department has expanded in areas of basic cancer research, pathology, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence. NDS is also home to multiple biobanks, a clinical trials centre and a group of researchers underpinning the research we do in the department. 

Our research is sponsored by a broad range of charities and public and corporate bodies including UK government, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and European Union programmes.