Board announces £6m for medical research

The Health Research Board has announced significant new funding for medical research here which should help coax Irish specialists back from abroad. A new fund worth £6 million over the next three years will be jointly financed by the Wellcome Trust - which supports biomedical research - and the Department of Health. It will be administered by the HRB, which will be inviting applications for the funding "almost immediately". The trust funding will be provided only on the basis that the Government continue to invest in the new scheme.

The additional £2 million per year represents more than a 70 per cent jump in the amount of money available for biomedical research from the board. The HRB's 1996 budget, as detailed in its annual report also released yesterday, amounted to just over £3 million, with about £2.75 million available to support research.

The announcement was hailed yesterday by the board's chairman, Prof Michael Murphy, as a "quantum leap" in research funding. "A major aim is to reverse the brain drain," he said. It is designed to "attract back to Ireland Irish graduates working successfully abroad".

Ireland, he said, was "morally obliged" to increase its investment in research. "We are morally responsible to contribute in proportion to our wealth to international biomedical research."

The scheme will support "new blood" research fellowships in medical science, with a promise of five years of funding for the researcher and for technical support and equipment. It also provides research grants for new lecturers and equipment grants. Wellcome has committed £1 million a year for the next three academic years to the scheme with matching funding from the Department of Health.

It was "incumbent on the Government to match" the Wellcome contribution, the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen, said yesterday. "Hopefully, it will extend beyond the three years." He added that Wellcome "seemed quite confident in the ability of Irish researchers to attract the funding" given its three-year commitment.

Ireland's fine record in biomedical research had encouraged Wellcome to support the scheme, according to Dame Bridget Ogilvie, director of the Wellcome Trust, who signed the joint agreement with the HRB yesterday. It was important that researchers had opportunities to go abroad but it was also important that they were able to come back home.

It was vital that Ireland improve its biomedical research base because this could help to attract related industries here. Basic research was "where the links with industry come from", she said, and Ireland had great potential to develop these links.

The chief executive of the HRB, Dr Vivian O'Gorman, said Ireland must maintain a biomedical research involvement as a way to help train medical staff.