A UK-wide plan published today (Thursday 30th June) aims to enable innovative research to be carried out more quickly, helping patients access cutting-edge treatments sooner, speeding up diagnosis and helping to ‘bust the COVID backlogs’. The plan includes £150 million of additional funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
A number of new measures have been announced and include increasing the amount of research and the size of the workforce, putting the UK at the centre of cutting-edge and global clinical studies. The continued investment means clinical trials can take place more quickly with a strengthened workforce and improved technology, helping patients take part virtually.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive of the NIHR, said: “I know we all want to deliver real change for patients and researchers, and these plans mark our shared commitment to strengthen our drive for efficient, innovative and patient-centred research that meets the health and care challenges of the future.”
The ambition to learn both from the route to a COVID vaccine whilst also working in a new way to address the COVID backlog is to be applauded, but as our Director of Research Dr Karen Noble comments: “Money being allocated and money being deployed isn’t the same thing. We need concrete evidence of funds getting into the hands of researchers and scientists as quickly and effectively as possible. We know the throughput of money allocated to brain tumour research in 2018 has been slow. It is our hope that commitments like this one made today can highlight any systemic issues in Government bodies that affect money getting to where it can make most impact and that any learnings or best practice can also inform our drive for better central funding getting into the hands of the brain tumour researchers who hold the key to the uniquely complex puzzle that brain tumours pose.”
You can read the report launch press release here: ‘Patients to benefit following clinical research boost’
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