Sir Paul NURSE
Over the past few months, the UK has shown how much it deserves its reputation as a powerhouse of biomedical research, with teams across the country focusing on Covid-19 to help guide us through this pandemic.
But while the Covid-19 crisis is showcasing the quality of British science, it is also posing a very significant threat to it. That is partly due to the closing of laboratories during lockdown, but more especially because of a collapse in the financial support which research depends upon.
Biomedical research in the UK is funded by government and endowed charities, but is also heavily dependent on money raised by research charities through donations from millions of UK citizens. These charities are now facing an existential funding crisis. Never before in my half century as a biomedical researcher has there been such a slump in income.
Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation are expecting to lose between 40 and 50 per cent of their annual income. The Association of Medical Research Charities is warning of a £310million annual shortfall, a reduction that may last for three years or more. It’s happened because lockdown forced the closure of charity shops and the cancellation of fundraising events, and because donors are giving less.
The charities are trying to maintain support for research by cutting their administrative and fundraising staff and reducing salaries. But the effects on science will still be dire. In the first phase of the pandemic, 70 per cent of clinical trials and studies were stopped, paused or delayed. In the coming year, thousands of scientists will be left unsupported, including young researchers starting out on their careers, often at the most creative time of their lives. Research infrastructure will be contracted in biomedical science labs, centres and institutes around the country, and some will be closed. Research teams built up over years will be reduced or dismantled.
As a result, the country’s long-term ability to cope with a wide range of diseases will be damaged through the failure to make the discoveries that take us closer to understanding them and finding new ways of diagnosing, preventing and treating them.
There is a solution. The Academy of Medical Research Charities has proposed a Partnership Fund. This calls on the Government to match-fund the giving of UK citizens who donate to biomedical research charities, so the £310million annual funding gap can be closed. Such a Partnership Fund would reverse the collapse in biomedical research funding in the UK and is a creative way for politicians to work directly with the public to support this critical research.
The UK is a world leader in biomedical research and innovation. That work saves lives; it improves the quality of lives; and it helps to drive the economy. Research must be protected from the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis and that can be achieved through such a Partnership Fund.