UK and Japan announce Memorandum of Understanding to jointly fund medical research
21 March 2012
The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) have announced today a new Japan-UK Partnership for Advances in Health Research. This commitment to jointly fund research proposals will cover many areas of mutual strategic importance with an initial focus on neuroscience, and in particular neurodegenerative disorders and mental health.
The president of JST, Dr Michiharu Nakamura, and the chief executive of MRC, Sir John Savill, have launched the new partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Together, the MRC and JST will now develop a workshop to bring together researchers to explore opportunities for joint working and this will be followed by a joint call for proposals.
Dr Mark Palmer, head of international strategy at the Medical Research Council (MRC), said: “Science is a global activity and it is more important than ever for researchers to collaborate across borders. The MRC is keen to ensure the best UK researchers are able to work with the best researchers elsewhere in the world to accelerate progress in medical research. Japan is one of the world leaders in biomedical research and in discussions with the Japan Science and Technology Agency we have agreed it would benefit both partners to cooperate in the promotion of research in those fields of most importance to us. We anticipate that this agreement with JST will be mutually beneficial and lead to high quality research in the future.”
A recent report prepared for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills demonstrates that work published in collaboration with overseas researchers has a higher impact than UK research alone and brings benefits to both the UK and the partner country.
Ends
