Stewart Jackson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding will be designated for basic and applied research into respiratory disease in 2014-15; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds a range of applied clinical research, but does not fund fundamental laboratory-based research, which is funded by other organisations including the Medical Research Council (MRC) and medical research charities.

The usual practice of the NIHR and of the MRC is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available.

The Department’s NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including respiratory disease. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and the National Health Service, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.

Spend on research funded directly by the Department’s NIHR from 2010-11 to 2012-13 in respiratory disease is shown as follows. The complete information on NIHR spend in 2013-14 is not currently available. These figures do not take account of NIHR expenditure on research infrastructure and systems where spend cannot be attributed to health categories.