Medicine: Research

(asked on 18th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to encourage the National Institute for Health Research and the Clinical Research Network to diversify their research portfolios to include a greater proportion of commercially funded research and clinical trials.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 30th April 2019

Through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), including the NIHR Clinical Research Network, the Government is increasing the volume of clinical trials and other well-designed studies undertaken, and increasing the proportion of commercially funded research.

In 2017 the Government announced more than £950 million investment in research infrastructure in the National Health Service including Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs), Clinical Research Facilities, Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (funded in partnership with Cancer Research UK and the devolved administrations) and Medtech and In vitro diagnostics Co-operatives. These centres and facilities conduct and support translational research to transform scientific breakthroughs into life-saving treatments for patients.

In 2017-18, the NIHR’s research infrastructure generated over £231 million of industry research investment, and the NIHR’s BRCs supported over 1,770 industry collaborative and contract research studies, filed 199 patents, and created five spin-out companies.

Reticulating Splines