Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support research into motor neurone disease.

Government responsibility for delivering research into motor neurone disease (MND) is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Medical Research Council for MND.

The Government is investing in MND research across a range of areas, including an £8 million investment via the NIHR into the EXPERTS-ALS. This is a pre-clinical study which is designed to accelerate the identification and testing of the most promising treatment candidates for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): the most common form of MND.

The MND Translational Accelerator, supported by £6 million of Government funding, is connecting the UK Dementia Research Institute, the UK MND Research Institute and Dementias Platform UK. Twelve projects have been funded through the Accelerator; all aimed at speeding up the development of treatments for MND.

The NIHR and UKRI continue to welcome funding applications for research into MND.