New funding for NHS research projects

pharmafile | May 28, 2009 | News story | Research and Development |  NHS 

Projects ranging from diagnostics to diabetes care and genotyping have been given government funding as part of a new award scheme.

Launched in September last year, the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) Research Fellowship competition aims to support the development of healthcare science research in the NHS.

The government says there are 50,000 people involved in such work in the NHS, contributing to around 80% of all clinical decisions.

The ten chosen programmes, named this week, receive a total of £1 million out of a total £4 million on offer over the three years of the scheme.

Professor Sue Hill, the chief scientific officer, said she looked forward to seeing the results of the research.

There were many high quality applications from healthcare scientists working across a wide range of disciplines, illustrating the wealth of opportunities within the NHS for translational research to improve patient care, she added.

Funded by the Department of Health and managed by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), the competition attracted 50 grant applications this year.

Details of the second competition will be published later in 2009 on the CSO and NIHR websites.

Professor Steve Smye, director of R&D and director of NIHR, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, chaired the panel which chose which research to fund.

The money also supports each fellows postgraduate training.

The ten CSO research fellows and their therapy areas are:

·     Lisa Ayers, immunology department, Churchill Hospital, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust (cardiovascular disease).

·     Bashir Mnene Matata, cardiothoracic & physiological measurements laboratory, Liverpool, Heart & Chest Hospital NHS Trust (cardiac surgery).

·     Nigel Davies, imaging & medical physics, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (cancer in teenagers and young adults).

·     Owen Driskell, clinical biochemistry, University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (diabetes testing).

·     Rachel Marrington, clinical biochemistry & immunology, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham (genotyping in statin induced myopathy).

·     Gareth Price, developing technologies, radiotherapy physics, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester (radiotherapy).

·     Tom Ford, immunology department, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London (diagnostic tests for patients with bronchiectasis).

·     Jonathan Reeves, clinical physics department, Barts and The London NHS Trust, London (diagnostics around oesophageal sensitivity).

·     Arlene Frater, transplant immunology, St James University Hospital, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (renal transplantation).

·     Philip Morgan, toxicology laboratory, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London (plasma drug assays).