Professor Alastair V Campbell appointed Chair of UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council
3 August 2004
Professor Alastair V Campbell has today been announced as the new chair of the UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council.
The Ethics and Governance Council will be established in October as an independent body, which will advise UK Biobank on rigorous standards of ethical, legal, and social consideration, as set out in the project's Ethics and Governance Framework. The Council will report publicly on the conformance of UK Biobank's activities with the Framework and with the interests of participants and the public.
Alastair Campbell is the inaugural Professor of Ethics in Medicine at the University of Bristol's School of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine. He was also vice chair of the Retained Organs Commission and served as a member of the Interim Advisory Group on Ethics and Governance for UK Biobank.
He said: "UK Biobank offers an unprecedented opportunity for us to gain a better understanding of a range of diseases and of effective ways to prevent, diagnose and treat them. It is going to be of paramount importance that the Ethics and Governance Framework is always strictly adhered to and I look forward to being involved in the process of advising and reporting on the work of UK Biobank"
The appointment of Professor Campbell, and the other members of the Council, is the responsibility of the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council on the recommendation of an independent Appointments Committee.
Professor John Newton, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Biobank, said:
"A strong and well-informed independent voice, speaking on behalf of participants and the public, is essential to the project. It will ensure that the UK Biobank acts in the public interest and that the right safeguards are in place from the beginning. We look forward to receiving further advice and guidance from the new group that Professor Campbell will lead."
Professor Campbell will take up his appointment on 1 September, and the full membership of the committee will be announced in early October.
ENDS
Media contacts
The Wellcome Trust
Mark Anderson
Tel: +44 (0)20 7611 8612
E-mail: mailto:m.anderson@wellcome.ac.uk
MRC
Dawn Duncan
Tel: +44 (0)20 7637 6011
E-mail: mailto:Dawn.Duncan@Headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Department of Health
Vicky Wyatt
Tel: +44 (0)20 7210 5656
E-mail: mailto:Vicky.Wyatt@doh.gsi.gov.uk
UK Biobank
Shaun Griffin
Tel: +44 (0)870 429 6348
E-mail: mailto:Shaun.griffin@ukbiobank.ac.uk
Note to editors
The UK Biobank project will be the world's biggest resource for the study of the role of nature and nurture in health and disease. The project will involve up to 500 000 volunteers, aged 45-69, who will complete lifestyle questionnaires and provide a blood sample for DNA and other analysis. This information, together with their medical histories, will be combined to create an anonymized national database - the UK Biobank. This will serve as a resource for scientists to investigate and determine the factors that cause the common disorders of later life, such as heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and type 2 diabetes. National and international experts in the field have rigorously and independently reviewed the science of the project, which has the support of a number of leading research charities. It is being funded jointly by the biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health.
The Wellcome Trust is an independent research funding charity established in 1936 under the will of the tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends over £400 million per annum.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organization funded by the UK tax-payer. Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and the academic world. The MRC has funded work which has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine in the UK. About half of the MRC's expenditure of over £412 million is invested in its 50 Institutes, Units and Centres, where it employs its own research staff. The remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training awards to individuals and teams in universities and medical schools.
Members of the appointments committee are:
- Rev Dr John Polkinghorne (Chair)
- Professor Martin Bobrow
- Mr Niall Dickson
- Dr William W Lowrance
- Professor Genevra Richardson
Information on the Appointments Committee, and on the Ethics and Governance Framework and associated consultations, is available on the UK Biobank website: www.ukbiobank.ac.uk