Recent activities at a glance
So far in 2011/12, the Medical Research Foundation has made the following notable awards:
- £2 million for a Mental Health Clinical Research Training Programme awarded to PsySTAR, a consortium of Scottish institutions offering innovative research training in psychiatry for 9 fellows over a period of 7 years.
- £330,000 personal fellowship for a senior researcher at the University of Cambridge to support the establishment of a research team.
- Subsidised accommodation for researchers visiting MRC’s London research units – supporting collaborations and skill sharing.
The Board of Trustees has also agreed, in principle, to:
- A commitment of £100,000 to support promotion of science activities associated with the MRC’s Centenary.
- Provide subsidised accommodation for successful applicants in the MRC/Academy of Medical Sciences Policy Internship.
In addition, the Medical Research Foundation launched a competition to provide support for cancer research in a Yorkshire university (from a restricted endowment fund).
In 2010/11, the Medical Research Foundation made the following notable awards:
- £2 million to the MRC/University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research to establish a clinical database of 10,000 patients infected with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV Research UK) (from two legacies restricted to supporting liver disease research in Glasgow and hepatitis research in MRC establishments).
- £140,000 worth of subsided accommodation for researchers visiting MRC London Units - supporting collaborations and skill sharing.
- £125,000 for six Alice Cory Early Research Training Fellowship for nurses, GPs and AHPs to train in methodological research skills at Masters level (from a legacy restricted to supporting medical fellowships)
- £100,000 for a post-doctoral researcher to characterise the properties of wild-type and clinically observed mutations in bird flu at MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research (from a prize fund restricted to support Professor Sir John Skehel’s research).
- £80,000 for an add-on study to the MRC’s Neonatal Melatonin Neuroprotection Trial (Professor Edwards et al Imperial and MRC Clinical Sciences Centre ((from a legacy restricted to support research on children’s health before birth and up to the age of 5)).
- £71,000 Sir Leonard Rogers Bursary to provide BSc level training in maths and statistics at Reading University for a young West African through a structured training programme at the MRC Gambia Unit.
- £30,000 for the dissemination of the results from the MRC-funded DART trial to participants in Africa (from the Fleming Memorial Fund for Medical Research).
- £28,000 for an add-on study to an existing MRC grant to investigate monocyte/macrocyte function in acute liver failure (Professor MK Thursz, Imperial College London) (from a legacy restricted to supporting liver transplant research).
- £20,000 conference travel scheme for young researchers at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford (from a legacy to support the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine).