More than £10m in funding will be made available for addiction research, the government has announced, to tackle the UK’s ‘critical shortage’ of world-class researchers. The funding will be provided for three schemes via the Addiction Healthcare Goals, which were launched in 2022.
The ‘flagship’ scheme will be delivered by the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA), with additional funding provided to the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to ‘support career development opportunities across the UK’, from pre- to post-doctoral levels. Further funding will go to the Medical Research Council (MRC) for clinical research training fellowships, clinical scientist fellowships and career development awards.
‘By backing the future leaders of addiction research, we are laying the groundwork for the vital, evidence-based prevention measures and treatments we need,’ said science minister Lord Vallance. ‘We know that exceptional talent can be found all over the country. That’s why this programme will look to every corner of the UK for researchers with high potential to pioneer addiction research that could save countless lives and save billions to be reinvested in our public services and economy.’