Life sciences industry urge Prime Minister to protect charity research

Today we’ve welcomed a call from leading industry and tech giants, for the Government to provide urgent financial support to medical research charities.

The letter calls for the Government to support the sector by committing to a Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund - a co-investment scheme which would provide matched funding from government to preserve charity research through the Covid-19 crisis.

Cancelled fundraising events and shop closures have resulted in a catastrophic loss of funding for the UK’s medical research charities. At the BHF, we are already having to cut our spend in new research awards by half this year from £100 million to £50 million.

Research at risk

Government support to bridge the gap in charity funding will be vital to safeguard the UK’s position as a world leader in life sciences. The industry leaders highlight several key areas where charity funded research contributes to the UK’s vibrant life sciences sector. This includes:

• Investing in early stage research and de-risking research areas to attract future investment from industry. This means charities uncover fundamental discoveries about basic biology, which reveal new lines of investigation for development of diagnostics and treatments by the rest of the sector.
• Deeply involving patient and physician communities in research, securing insights into patient needs and experiences and ensuring that investments have the best chance of improving patients’ lives.
• Investing in unique infrastructure including world leading research centres across the UK. This secures a pipeline of young scientists who will become future leaders in UK research and brings together multidisciplinary teams including physicists, chemists, engineers and mathematicians. 

Our Medical Director Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, said:

“The support from the life sciences industry reflects the vital contribution charity research makes to improving the health and wealth of the nation. This contribution is far more than the millions of pounds we invest. Medical research charities support thousands of talented young scientists who are set to be the UK’s research leaders of the future. And they invest in disease-specific areas of unmet need, including in heart and circulatory diseases, paving the way for the development of desperately needed medicines for the patients who need them.”

“Government support of medical research charities at this crucial time will help to secure the UK’s position as a global leader in life sciences, a better recovery for the UK’s economy and a better future for patients living with cardiovascular and many other diseases.”

Why our research has never been more important