Medical Research Council response to the spring supplementary announcement
21 February 2007
The Medical Research Council is disappointed at the government’s decision to cut its budget by £10.7million. The reduction in funds available to the MRC is part of a larger transfer of money within the Department for Trade and Industry. It will see £68million taken from the research councils’ combined budgets.
The DTI has announced that the money will come from the councils’ total end of year flexibility – money they can carry over from one financial year to the next to allow for financial planning flexibility.
In response to the government’s decision, Colin Blakemore the chief executive of the Medical Research Council said: “The MRC has committed its entire budget this year including all the cash that had been carried forward in other years. The Council will consider how best to minimise the impact of this reduction on the research we fund at its meeting at the end of March. However the cut will inevitably have an effect on our planned activities.
“We will try to ensure that we can continue our efforts to see the potential of research fully realised so that the benefits of scientific discoveries can be used in the clinic and we continue to try to improve human health as effectively as possible”.
Notes to editors:
1. For further information, please contact the MRC press office on 020 7637 6011.
2. The reductions for each Council are as follows:
- Arts and Humanities Research Council £5.3 million
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council £6.7 million
- Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils £0.5 million
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council £29.0 million
- Economic and Social Research Council £3.0 million
- Medical Research Council £10.7 million
- Natural Environment Research Council £9.7 million
- Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council £3.1 million
Reductions in the budgets for PPARC and CCLRC will be reflected in the budget for the new Science and Technology Facilities Council from 1 April 2007.
3. The Medical Research Council funds excellent science with the aim of improving human health. Its work ranges from science at the molecular level to public health research carried out in universities, hospitals and a network of units and institutes. The MRC works closely with the Health Departments, the National Health Service and industry to take account of the public’s needs. The results have led to some of the most significant discoveries in medical science and benefited millions of people in the UK and around the world.
