Declaration of interest: The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
Angelos Kolias is supported by a Royal College of Surgeons of England Research Fellowship, an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship, and a Raymond and Beverly Sackler Studentship. Paul Brennan holds a Clinical Lectureship, Edinburgh Clinical Academic Training Programme. Peter Hutchinson is supported by an NIHR Research Professorship, the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, and has been appointed as the Surgical Specialty Lead for Neurosurgery, Royal College of Surgeons of England Clinical Research Initiative. The launch meeting of the BNTRC was supported by an educational grant from Codman UK.