Health Innovation Challenge Fund announced
4 October 2007
The Wellcome Trust has announced today that it is providing up to £50 million over five years to a matched-fund with the Department of Health to support health innovation.This total fund of £100 million will be used to create a new Health Innovation Challenge Fund.The aim of the fund will be to support work that accelerates the development of innovativetechnologies, devices, and clinical procedures of relevance to the National Health Service (NHS).
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund will be used to translate the best ideas arising from basic and clinical research into the development of new products and approaches to the treatment of disease and illness.
Speaking today, Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust said:
"Innovation is at the heart of a vibrant NHS.I am delighted that the Government is providing a greater strategic focus on health innovation.It is splendid news that Lord Darzi will act as the champion for health innovation in the Department of Health and that a new Health Innovation Council is to be established to provide advice to Ministers.
"The creation of a jointly funded Health Innovation Challenge Fund builds on the excellence of the UK's medical sciences and will ensure that the best ideas can be carried forward for patient benefit within the NHS.New discoveries and technological innovations may fail to realise their potential unless they become attractive to industry, or downstream investors. We hope that this fund will bridge the gap from discovery to application."
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund will be administered jointly by the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health and will operate to best practice principles:
- open competition
- internationally peer reviewed applications
- competitive funding
- relevance to, and likely benefits for, the NHS.
Establishment of the Fund and a greater focus on health innovation in the Department of Health will help address some of the weaknesses which Sir David Cooksey's review of UK health research funding identified, last December.
An announcement on the detailed operation of the Fund will be made in early 2008, with applications for funding being received from the second quarter of 2008.
Contact
Katrina Nevin-Ridley
Head of Media
Wellcome Trust
T 020 7611 8540
M 07973 481485
E k.nevin-ridley@wellcome.ac.uk
Notes for editors
1. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.
2. Sir David Cooksey's review of UK health research funding (December 2006) drew attention to the strength of UK biomedical sciences, but highlighted two key gaps in the translation of health research:
- translating ideas from basic and clinical research into the development of new products and approaches to treatment of disease and illness
- implementing these new products and approaches into clinical practice.