Feature: Extraordinary opportunities
22 February 2010
For over 70 years, the Wellcome Trust has supported research of the highest quality with the aim of improving human and animal health. In our Strategic Plan for 2010-20, we present a vision that describes how we will work with our communities to be even more effective in achieving this aim. Our decision to develop a ten-year Plan reflects the long-term view we take in supporting research and the complex and global nature of the challenges that we face.
In the Plan, we identify five major challenges for the research community. Each of these challenges contains many important research questions and opportunities. These range across the broadest spectrum of research, from structural biology to public health. We recognise that each of the challenges is enormous and complex and will require ambitious approaches to make progress. We will work in partnership to provide the funding and support to tackle these challenges.
We will provide talented and innovative researchers with the freedom and resources they need to generate the discoveries that are essential to overcome these challenges. Our funding philosophy is to support the brightest researchers at all stages of their careers and to create the environments that they need for their research. We will support a wide range of activities to accelerate the application of research that can benefit health. We will maximise opportunities to engage diverse audiences with medical science and the questions that science raises for society.
This Plan for the next decade provides the basis on which we will develop our funding strategies. It also sets out how we will assess progress towards our goals, so that we can help to realise extraordinary improvements in health.
Our vision is to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health.
Our mission is to support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities.
Our focus areas
Supporting outstanding researchers
We support the most talented researchers at all stages of their careers, giving them the resources they need to fulfil their potential. We build world-class research environments in the UK and in low- and middle-income countries, and provide long-term support for capacity building and research resources. We are a prominent advocate and champion for biomedical research, influencing policy both nationally and internationally to ensure that research can flourish.
Accelerating the application of research
We are committed to maximising the application of research to deliver health benefits. Through our Technology Transfer funding, we support the development of new healthcare products, innovations and devices. As a major funder of clinical and public health research and training, we work to accelerate the application of basic research advances. We also work with others to stimulate the uptake and use of research to enhance clinical practice and public policy.
Exploring medicine in historical and cultural contexts
We strive to embed biomedical science within the global cultural landscape, so that it is valued and there is mutual trust between researchers and the wider public. This will require us to gain insight into today's critical questions by understanding our past, by enabling a range of perspectives on medicine, and by facilitating productive and meaningful engagement about biomedical science between scientists and the public.
Our five major challenges
Maximising the health benefits of genetics and genomics
We will maximise the power of genetics and genomics research to enhance global health. We will support research to understand how genomes function in health and disease, and work to ensure that this knowledge generates new health innovations for all. We will also explore and address the significant questions these advances raise for society, ensuring that individuals and communities around the world are empowered to use their genetic information to improve their health and quality of life.
Understanding the brain
We will support research to improve understanding of how the brain functions and to find improved approaches for treating brain and mental health disorders. This will require the characterisation of how nerve cells function and interact in complex networks to enable specific cognitive and behavioural functions. It will also demand a fully integrated approach that links basic and clinical biomedical research with key inputs from social sciences, humanities and the arts.
Combating infectious disease
We will promote an integrated approach to the study of infectious disease in humans and animals. Recognising the 'One Medicine, One Health' concept, we will support and facilitate research to understand the emergence, transmission, pathogenesis and control of acute and chronic infectious diseases at the global level. We will also work to engage the public in this area and to explore the impact of political, cultural, ethical and social contexts on infectious disease.
Investigating development, ageing and chronic disease
We will aim to develop an integrated understanding of how the body develops, functions and ages, and of the factors that contribute to the onset and development of chronic diseases. We will support basic, clinical and population-based research into chronic diseases, and new and improved approaches for their prevention, management and treatment. We will also engage the public in debate on the broader societal questions raised by research and health provision.
Connecting environment, nutrition and health
Global health is under serious threat from the interlinked issues of access to nutrition, food security and climate change. We will foster multidisciplinary research to address these problems and to inform the global response - working in partnership with others and ensuring that health is at the heart of the policy agenda. We will build a portfolio of high-quality research that considers the interplay between the biological, physical, social and natural environments, and informs behaviour change.
Find out more about our Strategic Plan, focus areas and research challenges
Image: Pancreatic cancer cells. Credit: Anne Weston/Wellcome Images
