§ Ms. Colquhounasked the Secretary State for Social Services what rôle he envisages for the new Institute of Hearing Research; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe aim of the new institute, which is now being established by the Medical Research Council, is to provide a base for staff and facilities for a major multi-disciplinary research effort in this field and also to provide a national centre for the co-ordination and initiation of research on hearing impairment. A major part of the research effort will be in the areas identified by the council's sub-committees on deafness. In particular, it will cover the rehabilitation of the hearing impaired and the epidemiology and clinical characterisation of hearing impairment. Research on the rehabilitation of hearing-impaired people will give more detailed attention than has been given before to their social and technological needs as well as to training designed to offset sensory impairment.
It is intended that the institute will comprise a headquarters building, which 266W will house the director and his immediate research team, and a number of small outstations, also responsible to the director, which will be situated at suitable centres throughout the country. These outstations will undertake multi-centre rehabilitation and clinical and epidemiological studies.
Professor Mark Haggard, at present head of the Department of Psychology at Queen's University, Belfast, has been appointed director of the new institute.