Britain unveils billion USD health research program

Britain's largest ever investment program into health research costing over one billion U.S. dollars will see the creation of world class facilities, it was announced Wednesday.

The five-year funding package, targeted at research into mental health, dementia and antimicrobial resistance, will be geared at leading clinicians in the National Health Service (NHS) as well as universities across the country, the Department for Health said in a statement.

Leading NHS clinicians and universities will benefit from new world class facilities and support services built by the five-year funding package totalling more than 1 billion U.S. dollars. It represents the largest ever investment into health research, according to the government.

There will be increased research funding for mental health research, dementia, deafness and hearing problems and antimicrobial resistance research.

The funding has been awarded to 20 NHS and university partnerships across England through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Each of the 20 biomedical research centers will host the development of new, ground-breaking treatments, diagnostics, prevention and care for patients in a wide range of diseases like cancer and dementia.

Each local partnership between the NHS and university, winning a share of the billion U.S. dollars will be known as an NIHR biomedical research center

Universities includes Cambridge, Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College, UCL, King's College, to provincial universities in Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester, Southampton and the Institute of Cancer Research.

The Department for Health says that for every U.S. dollar it invests in the program, hospitals and universities will generate 6 U.S. dollars from public funders of research, charities and industry partners. Endit