Health And Care Research Wales Announces Major £49m Investment In Research Infrastructure
Women’s health, mental health and tackling cancer are among key areas for research into health and social care over the next five years, in a major £49m funding announcement by Health and Care Research Wales today (27 January).
Health and Care Research Wales has announced Research Development Infrastructure funding for 17 research centres across Wales, including five new organisations – the Wales Applied Virology Unit, National Centre for Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention, Centre for Social Care and Artificial Intelligence Learning, Women’s Health Research Wales and Centre for Vision Services Research.
The investment includes funding for flagship centres such as the SAIL Databank, National Centre for Mental Health and CASCADE-Partnership, and will boost academic capability and the amount of high-quality research taking place in Wales.
The funding has been awarded across two categories – sustainability awards, for currently funded groups to maintain effective models of practice and support a trajectory towards self-sustainability, and catalytic awards, to boost capacity and capability in areas of health and care need and emerging Welsh research strength.
Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, said:
“Research has a critical role to play in helping us to achieve our aim of A Healthier Wales. This is an important investment in new and exciting areas of research, including women’s health; preventing suicide and self-harm and AI – I hope it provides real evidence over the next five years, which will help shape services and care for people across Wales.”
Michael Bowdery, Joint Interim Director at Health and Care Research Wales and Head of Programmes, Research and Development Division at Welsh Government, said:
“This announcement represents a significant investment in our funded infrastructure in Wales over the next five years, and reflects our ambition to advance research capability aligned with unmet health and social need in key policy areas.
“Our approach to providing this funding is based on two criteria – firstly, where there is a clear and compelling research and evidence need in the area for Welsh Government, the NHS and social care system in Wales; and secondly, where there is demonstrably strong or emerging research capacity and capability in the area.
“These centres embody the principle of research having the power to make a difference to people’s health and wellbeing, and we are pleased to be able to support their activity in this field.”