Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Government funding for research into stem cell transplantation.

A wide range of research relating to stem cell transplantation is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR supports the delivery of translational medicine in this field through its biomedical research centres and units, clinical research facilities, and experimental cancer medicine centres (funded jointly with Cancer Research UK), and later phase trials through its clinical research network. Following an open competition, the NIHR is investing £15.1 million in fournew blood and transplant research units from October 2015. These units are research partnerships between universities and NHS Blood and Transplant.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council are collectively investing £25 million in the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP) to address the technical and scientific challenges associated with translating scientific discoveries towards clinical impact. The first annual report from the UKRMP was published in November 2014:

www.ukrmp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/UKRMP-First-Annual-Report-2.0MB.pdf

The funding of projects to deliver regenerative medicine products that can be tested in the clinic is a key goal of Innovate UK’s regenerative medicine themed collaborative research and development competitions. In addition, Innovate UK has established the Cell Therapy Catapult with the core purpose of building a world-leading cell and gene therapy industry in the United Kingdom.