Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department has allocated to research on aplastic anaemia in each of the last five years.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care including aplastic anaemia.

Applications to the NIHR are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Topics for new research can be proposed to the NIHR at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/suggest-a-research-topic

The NIHR has not allocated funding to research on aplastic anaemia in the last five years, neither directly nor through its research programmes or career development awards, because no applications were received that were deemed fundable by the NIHR.

The NIHR also works closely with other Government funders, including UK Research and Innovation, which is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and includes the Medical Research Council, to fund research into a range of conditions, including aplastic anaemia.