Research is the fuel of hope and the natural result of curiosity and observation. Research drives us to understand our health better, to diagnose diseases earlier and more accurately, to provide better treatments and cures and even to understand our genetic inheritance and make better lifestyle choices for our health.
The Trust aims to contribute to research on a national and international basis by:
-
funding research ourselves, where resources are available
-
contributing to thinking on where research resources can best be spent
-
giving feedback to bodies like NICE where they are seeking the views of patients about priorities for research or where research data needs to be made more meaningful by taking views from patients about what is important to them.
The Trust is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). It takes its membership of this body (which is itself a charity) seriously, as it helps us to examine whether what we are doing is done in the right way. It has a set of guidelines about how to fund research. One of the principle aspects of those guidelines is that each charity, which is a member of the AMRC operates a process of peer review in giving out research grants. This ensures that we give out money for research on a properly, independently rated assessment of the proposed work by a knowledgeable group of experts.
