Minister of Health, Simon Harris visited the Wellcome Trust – HRB Clinical Research Facility at St. James’s Hospital on Tuesday to announce a new research training scheme for young Irish doctors.
A team of Irish clinical academics have secured one of seven major awards that have been made across the UK and Ireland by Wellcome*. The scheme, which will be known as Wellcome – HRB Irish Clinical Academic Training Programme, will support the intake of eight postgraduate trainee doctors a year for a five-year period, providing fully integrated clinical and research training up to consultant level.
The award represents an overall investment of almost €13 million with €7.5 million coming from Wellcome and the Health Research Board (HRB) matched with a further combined contribution of €5.5 million from the Health Service Executive and the Health and Social Care Research and Development Office, Northern Ireland, and the partner Universities. The programme will be open to applications in autumn 2016 for an intake beginning in July 2017
‘A research-active health system is proven to have better outcomes for patients’, said Minister for Health Simon Harris, announcing the programme. ‘
Professor Michael Gill the Principal Investigator on the Wellcome-HRB Irish Clinical Academic Training Programme and Director of the Clinical Research Facility said,
‘Our goal in securing this award was to enable a fundamental change in the training of future academic clinicians on an all-Ireland basis. At its core is a fully integrated clinical and research programme that will provide seamless, supported and mentored training of the highest standard, targeting future clinical academic leaders in the universities and health care system.
The partner universities involved in the programme include Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, NUI Galway, University College Cork, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Queen’s University Belfast. Each academic partner is affiliated to hospitals and hospital groups in their region. A crucial coordinating role was played by Molecular Medicine Ireland, the collaborative entity owned by the university partners.
LinkedIn