The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has put out a call for research proposals to improve the prevention, diagnosis and long-term management of liver disease.
Researchers wishing to apply to this NIHR cross programme broad ‘liver disease call’ should apply on the website. The closing date for outline applications is Wednesday 27th November 2019.
The Trust provided input into the proposal and commissioning brief and is delighted to see this project come to fruition.
Pamela Healy OBE, Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust said,
“Liver disease is a major public health crisis. Yet shockingly, research funding and the infrastructure that is needed to deliver world class research in this area has historically been much lower than for other diseases. We are delighted to see this injection of funding for new research projects and hope that it leads to much needed innovations in care and improvement in survival rates.”
The British Liver Trust has been highlighting the current mismatch between levels of research funding and the burden of liver disease. We campaign for increased funding so that we can improve the quantity and quality of research and ultimately improve the treatment, care and understanding of all liver disease and liver cancer.
After meeting with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the UK's largest funder of health and care research, the British Liver Trust contributed to the development of the proposal and the commissioning brief. We also provided patient feedback on the scope and ensured that the brief was wide encompassing different liver conditions. The Trust then sent a letter of support outlining the need for additional research in liver disease and support for the proposal which provided important leverage to getting this proposal approved within the NIGHR and with the Dept of Health and Social Care.
Prior to this we contributed to two projects that used patients, carers and health professionals to identify research priorities in liver disease. See Alcohol-related Liver Disease James Lind Alliance (JLA) Priority Setting Partnership and the Non-alcohol-related liver and gallbladder disorders priority setting partnership for more details.
The NIHR recognises the importance of all research projects having patient and public involvement (PPI) and the British Liver Trust is keen to support researchers in this area. It is vital that researchers adequately put the costs for us providing that support into their initial research proposal so that we can charge for the time to help provide patient input, engagement and information to researchers and project applications. Please email info@britishlivertrust.org.uk if you would like to speak to someone about PPI.
