TY - JOUR T1 - Cutting the cake: allocation of NHS research and development funding JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 827 LP - 828 VL - 55 IS - 520 AU - Nigel Mathers AU - Denis Pereira Gray Y1 - 2005/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/55/520/827.abstract N2 - The recent consultation paper on a new national health research strategy1 and the advent of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) following the Academy of Medical Sciences report2 presents both opportunities and challenges for the primary care research community.The consultation paper sets out proposals for the future direction of health research for the Department of Health and the NHS in England and the UKCRC is ‘a new partnership to establish the UK as a world leader in contributions to clinical research by harnessing the power of the NHS’ (www.ukcrc.org.uk). The UK government is investing some £100 million in the UKCRC, which is designed to improve the clinical research environment. These two initiatives have profound implications for primary care research in terms of funding opportunities and the contribution primary care can make to health research.At present, the sources of research funding on which studies depend fall into a small number of broad categories: the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust and the charities that focus on specific diseases such as cancer. A further source of research funding is the Department of Health — the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and the Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) programmes, together with research capacity development funding, have been particularly important in developing and supporting research in primary care. The Department of Health now spends more than £500 million per year on research and development (R&D) and it is essential not only that primary care research get its ‘fair share’ of this money but also that it is equitably distributed across all of the UK.Although £500 million sounds like a great deal of money, as a proportion of the total current spend on the NHS, it is a relatively small … ER -