Medical Research Council welcomes funding settlement
Tuesday 9 October 2007
A significant increase in the publicly funded health research budget has been welcomed by the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC is to receive £682million a year by 2010-11 from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. It will work closely with the research arm of the Department of Health - the National Institute for Health Research – which will receive £992 million a year by 2010-11. Together they will cover all aspects of health research in the UK under the auspices of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research.
The chief executive of the Medical Research Council, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, welcomed the Government’s announcement: “This is a significant boost for health research in the UK. The Government’s settlement will maintain and strengthen the foundations of basic biomedical research in the UK. But it will also enable researchers to do more to translate discoveries into benefits for patients and society.”
“This settlement will provide the seed corn from which we can produce improvements in human health more quickly and more efficiently in the coming years. The alignment of the MRC, NIHR and other public sector funders of medical research within a single integrated strategy through OSCHR will help to ensure the competitiveness of UK medical research in the future.”
The settlement will be a boost for UK science generally. It will help to further important work with other research councils which will tackle the emerging research challenges such as the cross council initiative on Ageing research: lifelong health and well-being.
Announcing the figures, the Chancellor Alistair Darling told MPs:
“Britain has more Nobel prize winners than any country outside the USA. Yesterday another prize was awarded for medical research, which is testament to Britain’s continued scientific success, recognised across the world. And so more British medical discovery can be translated into new health drugs, treatments and preventions, I can announce today I am funding in full the recommendations of Sir David Cooksey’s review. We will expand the single fund for health research to £1.7 billion by 2010.”
Phone: 0207 670 5138 or 07818 428 297
press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Ref: MRC/44/07
