UKCRC (UK Clinical Research Collaboration) & Wellcome Science Strategic Advisory Group

"
UKCRC Board
The UKCRC Board is chaired by Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department of Health, and is made up of representatives from all of the UKCRC Partner organisations. The Board meets twice a year and provides a forum that enables all Partners to work together to transform the clinical research environment in the UK."

http://www.ukcrc.org/about-the-ukcrc/boards/ukcrc-board/

(nb Wessely used to be on it but don't think he is now)

From the minutes of UKCRC meeting in 12/10/2017

"
10. Open session of new research initiatives (Charities) Oral
Partners were invited to given an update on research initiatives that their organisations are involved in.
Beth Thompson (Wellcome Trust)
• New funding approach to better manage Wellcome’s endowment, which currently stands at £23b, compared to around £12b in 2005. Replacing a funding system under which spending rose and fell with the value of the endowment, with a more stable approach that will allow funding of Wellcome’s core activity to grow predictably and sustainably under most market conditions.
o Core activity, including grant schemes and centres of excellence in Science, Innovations and Culture & Society, will be supported through the Primary Fund. This will spend £903 million in 2017-18 and is intended to increase this with inflation over the next five years so it is protected in real terms.
o A Reserve Fund will support six priority areas, and other initiatives where Wellcome wants to drive significant progress or change over five to ten years. Additions to the Reserve Fund will only take place when investments perform well enough to provide a surplus after Primary Fund spending.
• Mental health is currently being explored as a potential new priority area from the reserve fund.
• Publication of new science strategy: Improving health through the best research, developed by Jim Smith over his first year as Director of Science. With four broad aims: creating knowledge, strengthening research capacity, using knowledge effectively, promoting an environment in which research can flourish.
• Formation of the Science Strategic Advisory Group to help review and adapt activities so that the best science continues to be funded."

http://www.ukcrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/12_10_2017_Finalminutes.pdf


"Introducing our new science strategy
4 October 2017
"................
We will continue to draw on the knowledge of experts in different disciplines and from around the world. A new Science Strategic Advisory Group, including experts from different research disciplines, will help us review and adapt our activities so that we continue to fund the best science."
"Our new science strategy draws on conversations with colleagues at Wellcome and on experience from my previous lives – as a research scientist, an institute director, and latterly in a funding organisation. But, most importantly, it is informed by conversations with the people we support – at researcher meetings, during visits to universities, centres and institutes, and through chance encounters. I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to these discussions."

https://wellcome.ac.uk/news/introducing-our-new-science-strategy

"
Science Strategy Advisory Group

Members
Professor Anthony Hyman (Chair)
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany

Professor Doreen Cantrell
University of Dundee

Professor Helen Colhoun
University of Edinburgh

Professor Helen McShane
University of Oxford

Professor Anne Mills
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Professor William Newsome
Stanford University, USA
"

https://wellcome.ac.uk/science-strategy-advisory-group

Are any ME orgs making any kind of representations to either of these groups?

 

Will be interesting to know the specifics of this, given some of Wellcome's questionable history and their continued funding of the SMC:

• Mental health is currently being explored as a potential new priority area from the reserve fund.