The government has this week announced that more than £800 million of funding will be allocated to special health and care research facilities, which will be distributed through the National Institute for Health and Care Research [NIHR].
The aim is to improve patient outcomes by channeling funds into ground-breaking medicine research, innovative new treatments and enhanced delivery of health and care services.
Funds will be invested into scientific expertise and will improve regional economic growth through employment opportunities, the Department for Health & Social Care says.
A total of almost £790 million has been allocated to 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres [BRCs] across England – including a new centre in Exeter - over the next five years to drive innovation in the diagnosis and treatment of illness across a variety of high-priority disease areas including cancer, mental health and dementia.
A further £25 million over the next five years has been awarded to six NIHR Patient Safety Research Centres [PSRCs] to help improve understanding and resolution of patient safety challenges.
This funding will go toward research that will help improve incident reporting and investigations, as well as digital innovations to improve patient safety.
£260 million of the funding will be allocated outside of London, Oxford and Cambridge to ensure experimental medicine research can thrive across the country. This goes beyond previous pledged outlined in the government’s Levelling-Up White Paper and will allow more areas to benefit from innovation and improved health and care services, thereby closing the health inequalities gap.
Therese Coffey, secretary of state for health and social care, commented: “The (Covid-19) pandemic has highlighted the importance of our booming research sector and the potential it has to not only strengthen health and care services, but lead to lifesaving developments.
“This additional funding will harness the UK’s world-leading innovation and allow research centres up and down the country to attract experts in their field and conduct research that saves lives.
“From helping develop the Covid vaccine to discovering world-first treatments, these centres have already delivered ground-breaking research and will continue to help us tackle some of the biggest health challenges we face, including cancer, to ensure the NHS continues to deliver world-class care.”
The NIHR BRC’s have helped support almost 60,000 experimental medicine research programmes since 2013, resulting in various innovations such as the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccine; a new motor neurone disease treatment; novel gene therapy which could help cure genetic defects such as haemophilia; and a study which supports lower exposure to radiotherapy for women with breast cancer.
Over the same period, the NIHR PSRCs have supported more than 800 patient safety research studies, which have helped drive major healthcare service improvements such as increased use of AI in detecting breast cancer; developing patient safety culture improvement programmes in NHS hospitals; and reducing medication errors in primary care settings.
Health minister, Robert Jenrick, said: “Clinical research has been vital in our fight against Covid and the UK’s innovation is enabling us to transform our health service and ensure it is firmly at the cutting edge of health and care.
“Our NIHR clinical research infrastructure provides crucial access to expertise in designing and delivering high quality, innovative research for the life sciences industry. This supports companies to conduct their clinical studies of new treatments in the UK for patient and public benefit and grows the UK’s share of the global market.
“We’re continuing to build on our world-leading advances to find new treatments and better diagnose illness as well as better understand how we can improve patient safety.”
Professor Lucy Chappell, CEO of the NIHR said: “This huge investment into early-stage health and care research and patient safety innovation recognises the strength of expertise in these areas across the country, and gives our best researchers more opportunities to improve care and treatment for patients nationwide.
“These investments showcase our scientific excellence, ensuring that the UK benefits from the latest innovations and advancements in research and enables a strong and competitive research workforce to be further developed. They are crucial to ensuring that patients receive the highest quality, safest care.”
The Department for Health and Social Care adds that investment in the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres and Patient Safety Research Collaborations will help stimulate economic growth and create a healthier and more resilient UK.
It explains that the centres will strengthen UK resources and facilities for research across the NHS, and foster collaboration between academics, clinicians, patients and the life sciences sector.
Meanwhile, ministers say that the Patient Safety Research Collaborations will support the NHS to improve patient safety and reduce health inequalities, while the Biomedical Research Centres will bring key medical treatments and technologies forward and enhance the ability of the UK health sector to detect and treat illness and disease.
Photo by Lucas Vasques on Unsplash
