Mark Drakeford, the Health and Social Services Minister has announced over £4m of extra funding will be spent to fund clinical research as part of a new Medical Research Council scheme.
Cardiff University has been successful in securing almost £7m in total, including £3.4m from the Welsh Government, to install a new ultra-highfield MRI system for the new Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC).
The new MRI system will allow researchers to investigate the causes and treatments of a number of brain conditions, including dementia, schizophrenia, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and numerous other conditions which can cause damage to the brain, such as hypertension (high blood pressure). The move to fund such a scheme has been well received by officials at the university.
The university has also secured more than £1.5m from the Welsh Government, to support dementia research, as part of the UK Dementias Platform (UKDP), which is directed by Dr John Gallacher, from Cardiff University.
This new approach to researching the different types of brain conditions will bring together data from approximately 2 million study participants to try and discover the causes of dementia and to find ways of delaying onset, slowing progression and could perhaps even prove vital in one day finding cures.
The Investment Will Help Make the UK an Internationally Unique Place to Study Dementia
The platform, launched this year, represents a growing collaboration of UK universities and pharmaceutical companies. The investment will deliver an integrated environment for innovative and co-ordinated research programmes, helping to make the UK an internationally unique place to study the causes and effects of dementia.
Professor Drakeford said: “I would like to congratulate Professor Richard Wise and Dr John Gallacher from Cardiff University on securing this funding which will allow the university to carry on its pioneering research into a number of brain conditions, including dementia, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.”
“These prestigious awards further enhance Cardiff University’s reputation as a world-leader in neuroscience.”
The funding will certainly go down well with both the staff and students who will benefit from it at Cardiff University. If they put it to good use and achieve some fantastic research and information, we could find that their success would make it easier for our government to justify giving the same funding for other universities in the future.
Do you feel that the funding will prove useful and what other medical fields would you like to see the government increase funding on in the future?
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