UNSW, hospital partnership to save lives quicker

The University of NSW has signed a partnership with the NSW Government to ensure world leading medical discoveries save lives quicker than anywhere else in the world.

The precinct will merge the University's Kensington campus, Prince of Wales Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital, into a health hub costing $1 billion.

The concept hinges on collaboration between medical researchers and NSW Health, to get new life saving procedures to patients immediately.

"Only eight percent of pancreatic cancer patients survive beyond a year and they're looking to double that number in the next 12 months," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

"It's about reducing the time it takes to make a discovery and apply it to patients, it's literally prolonging life and saving life."

Medical students and researchers won't be the only faculty involved, instead UNSW will draw on its expertise from its entire student and academic cohort.

"We have an engineer working on heart disease and that's fantastic, we had specialists in genetics working on cancer," Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs said.

"It will enable us to compete on the global stage."

The redevelopment will be completed and operational within five years.