Video: Dr Maria Koufali tells Notts TV what the investment will mean for patients
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has today announced that Nottingham’s hospitals have been awarded £23.6 million from the Government to make world-first medical breakthroughs.
Nottingham already has two Biomedical Research Units (BRUs) in digestive diseases and hearing, but these BRUs will be replaced by Biomedical Research Centres by April 2017.
Doctor Maria Koufali is the Deputy Director of Research & Innovation, for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and was thrilled that her centre was chosen for funding.
She said: “We are immensely proud in Nottingham, this is big growth for us (75%) we are one of the cities that actually did very well in this competition and we very much look forward to working with the University of Nottingham which is a key partner in helping make this a success.”
Dr Koufali then explained just how much difference the multi-million pound investment would make to NUH.
She said: “Nottingham University Hospitals have been hosting National Institute of Health Research awards since 2008.
“In 2008, we were awarded around £15 million to do experimental medicine research in various areas, essentially we are continuing on that initial success. We’ve had an initial round of funding in 2012 which was slightly reduced but we have now increased our funding in Nottingham by 75% with the £23.6 million.”
The NUH currently have 300 open studies in Nottingham and they are inviting the public to look at their website and see what studies they have open so they can engage with the research.
