£4m funding boost for clinical research in the North East

Newcastle’s NIHR/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility has been awarded £4 million by the current Conservative Government, a major funding boost to clinical research in the North East. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funded through the Department of Health, and works to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. This £4 million is a brilliant investment into our local community, and will ensure that our research facilities have the resources and expertise to develop and evaluate cutting edge clinical interventions to benefit patients from all over the North East and beyond. The funds were awarded to Newcastle’s facilities to continue the important research that they are carrying out into dementia, conditions affecting children, diseases of the muscles and nerves, and ageing and longer term conditions.

Nicola Blackwood, from the Ministry of Public Health and Innovation, highlighted that: “Investment in this area so far has led to a variety of breakthroughs, including the first new asthma treatment in a decade, and a promising treatment for peanut allergies in children, to name just two.”

This exciting news follows another recent announcement that named the Newcastle Hospitals Trust as the top performing trust in England for the volume of clinical research carried out.

Professor Julia Newton, director of the Newcastle Academic Health Partners, said: “We know that developing new and innovative treatments wouldn’t be possible without our clinical research facilities and so investment like this is invaluable”.

Meanwhile, Paddy Stevenson, Newcastle’s NIHR operations manager, called this “a proud moment for our research community”; I wholeheartedly agree.

See The Chronicle's full article on this here:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/government-announce-4m-funding-boost-12249226