TWO awards from the Wellcome Trust worth #11m have put Edinburgh University at the forefront of clinical research well into the next century, writes Alan MacDermid, Medical Correspondent.
The trust has chosen Edinburgh as one of five sites in the United Kingdom - and the only one in Scotland - for a Clinical Research Facility to conduct patient-focused research into common conditions and areas such as stroke, diabetes, cancer, endocrinology, cardiovascular disease, medicine of the elderly, gastroenterology, and respiratory disease.
Wellcome decided earlier this year to build the five facilities by 2000. Edinburgh's bid was made jointly between Edinburgh University and three of the city's NHS trusts - the Western General, the Royal Infirmary, and Edinburgh Healthcare.
Professor Peter Butler, who holds the chair of diabetic medicine at the university and will be the first director of the new facility, said: ''The Wellcome Trust has identified some major weaknesses in patient-focused clinical research in the UK and it was in order to address this that the awards were launched.''
The deal will be worth #4m. The other award, for #1m a year over seven years, is the result of Edinburgh being one of two sites - the other is Oxford - chosen by Wellcome to take part in a new cardiology research initiative. It will enable researchers to look at the fundamental causes of heart disease with the ultimate aim of developing new approaches and treatments.
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