15/02/2012

Health Researches Awarded

Eight of the UK’s foremost leaders in medical health research will be awarded a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) professorship, the Government announced on Wednesday.

Each professor will receive £1.5m of funding to conduct research into conditions that affect millions of patients across the UK.

Projects that will be able to go ahead as a result of this announcement include helping people living with cancer to have a better quality of life; developing new surgical techniques for bowel cancer patients, including robotics, biosensors and fluorescent guidance; working with soldiers and civilians to minimise the effects head injuries have on the brain; and improving care for pregnant women and babies with life-threatening illnesses.

Health Minister Anne Milton said: “The professors will be given the opportunity to develop their research programmes, but most importantly they won’t stop treating NHS patients. This will help make sure that new ideas make the leap from the bench to the bedside.

“We want to see medical research advance, and to do that it is essential that we nurture the very best researchers to the benefit of NHS patients.”

The professors were selected by an international panel of independent experts. The second round of the competition is also opening today, and the next group of NIHR professors will be appointed later in the year.

(DW/GK)

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