Wellcome Trust and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announce the launch of a joint £45 million initiative to boost innovation in medical engineering within the UK
The initiative will provide funding for a number of multidisciplinary centres of excellence within the UK, bringing together experts in the fields of the physical and engineering sciences with those in the clinical and life sciences with the aim of developing innovative solutions for healthcare.
Major advances in healthcare or life sciences research are frequently underpinned by the development of new technology, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), reconstructive surgery and non-invasive diagnostic tests.
The discovery and development of such innovations requires a multi- or inter-disciplinary approach.
However, increasing specialisation within disciplines needs to be matched by exciting and innovative research across these interfaces.
The Medical Engineering initiative will provide funding to enable academic institutions to engage in applied research for healthcare.
It will also improve the integration of expertise in the public and private sectors so that innovations arising in academia are harnessed effectively by the healthcare industry and aided through the process of regulation, commercialisation and distribution for patient benefit.
Over the past 12 months, both the Wellcome Trust and the EPSRC have announced a number of new medical devices developed with their funding.
These include the i-Snake for use in keyhole surgery, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and biological cements to repair burst fractures of the spine, funded by EPSRC.
Now, with £30 million from the Wellcome Trust and £15 million from EPSRC, the two organisations hope to stimulate further discovery and boost the development of such innovations.
"Major advances in medical diagnosis and treatment, such as CT scanning, magnetic resonance scanning and fibre-optic surgical techniques have come from interdisciplinary collaborations between engineering, physical and medical sciences," says Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust.
"This scheme will provide major new funding for interdisciplinary collaborations to develop new technologies that will advance healthcare in the future".
Professor David Delpy, chief executive of EPSRC, says: "The UK has significant strengths in the areas of engineering, physical, clinical and life sciences.
"This partnership with the Wellcome Trust opens up exciting new possibilities in exploratory research in healthcare that will cross these disciplines.
"It offers tremendous potential for significant advances to address currently unmet clinical needs".
The initiative has been welcomed by Ian Pearson, minister of state for science and innovation.
"Innovation will be a necessity if we are to have a successful economy and society in the future," says Pearson.
"In our White Paper 'Innovation Nation' launched recently we set out the ambition to help the UK be the best place for innovative businesses, public services and third sector organisations to flourish.
"Government can foster innovation, but only people can create an innovation nation.
"We want to establish creative alliances, such as the medical engineering initiative, to support innovation".
Applications for funding from academic institutions across the UK are now open and the deadline for preliminary applications is 30 May 2008.
