British Heart Foundation aims to fund over £500m in research
Howard Lake | 20 October 2015 | News
The British Heart Foundation has launched its new research strategy with the aim of funding over half a billion pounds of cardiovascular research over the next five years.
Currently more than seven million people in the UK are living with heart and circulatory disease and it is responsible for more than a quarter of all deaths. Last year the BHF funded over half of all cardiovascular research taking place in universities and hospitals across the UK.
The charity’s strategy takes six approaches to funding research, including:
• investing in people – funding the most talented people at all career stages and seeking to attract outstanding researchers from around the world.
• funding all types of research into cardiovascular disease, including laboratory studies, clinical studies and population studies.
• supporting research collaborations across borders and disciplines, and joining forces with other funders to support more comprehensive research programmes.
It will also help women to stay in research. The review behind the strategy highlighted the underrepresentation of women in senior cardiovascular research roles.
Grant scheme
For the first time BHF will fund healthcare professionals, such as nurses, by establishing a dedicated grant scheme. This research is aimed at improved the quality of care for people with cardiovascular disease.
There is no information yet on when the grant scheme will open and who will be eligible, but the information when available will be published in the charity’s What We Fund section.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said:
“Our new research strategy outlines how over half a billion pounds will be spent over the next five years but progress will only continue with support from the public, the sustained financial input from the Government and close collaboration between all medical research funders.”
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Image: Heart health by Ekaterina Garyuk on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.