New fund to advance scientific discoveries into clinical practice
16 July 2009
The aim of the Health Innovation Challenge Fund is to facilitate high-quality translational health research - technological developments that can deliver economic and patient health benefits to the UK and build on this country's excellence in science. Through the provision of 'gap-bridging' funding, the initiative will stimulate the delivery of technologies, products and interventions having clinical applicability within the NHS in a three- to five-year time frame.
A series of themed calls will be made, the first of which is 'advancing genetic discoveries into clinical practice' with funding of up to £20 million. This seeks to capitalise on the wealth of information created by human genome analysis and the drive to bring the emerging insights to clinical application.
Health Minister Professor Lord Ara Darzi said: "We must support innovation in order to respond to the challenges we face - especially where resources are constrained.New ideas need to be tested to ensure they are successful and add value, and this requires investment.There is a significant body of evidence to suggest that investment in innovation produces long-term benefits overall.The Healthcare Innovation Challenge Fund will provide vital resource and support to the UK healthcare sector."
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "The Wellcome Trust is a committed funder of translational research. Our partnership with the Department of Health should provide a valuable catalyst to stimulate the research community to apply their ideas and emerging technologies to patient care.The call for proposals in medical genetics is timely and important, given the tremendous pace of developments arising from the application of genome sequencing to improved understanding of human variation in health and disease. This scheme fits well with the recent recommendations of the House of Lords Select Committee report on genomic medicine."
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund forms part of Lord Darzi's strategy for the future of the NHS – 'High Quality Care for All' - in which he committed to creating a pioneering NHS where innovation can flourish. Today's announcement reinforces the government's commitment to supporting the UK life sciences and biotechnology sector, and complements the Wellcome Trust's aim of improving health through research and its timely application to product development for the benefit of patients and society.
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund is a scheme lasting up to five years supported by up to £100 million contributed in equal measure by the Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust, the biggest medical research charity in the UK.
Contact
Katrina Nevin-Ridley
Media Office
Wellcome Trust
T +44 (0)20 7611 8540
E
k.nevin-ridley@wellcome.ac.uk
Notes for editors
Any further questions on the Fund should be directed to the Department of Health news desk on 020 7210 5221, or to Katrina Nevin-Ridley in the Wellcome Trust media office on 020 7611 8540.
Anyone who is interested in submitting a proposal or who would like to know more should visit the HICF page on our website.
'Gap-bridging' funding is defined as: funding to support the development of a technology or intervention from a point at which the basic concept is ready to test in the market and is sufficiently developed to be attractive for either follow-on development by third parties or is ready for introduction, procurement and adoption by health services.
This announcement is the latest in a series of measures designed to realise Lord Darzi's vision that the NHS should become an organisation in which innovation is an accepted part of everyday life and where innovation can flourish.
The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 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.