§ Lord Gainfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it will make a statement on funding for research into medical implants.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Hesketh)I am pleased to announce today a new LINK programme in medical implants. Collaborative research in this area is vital to ensure that the United Kingdom industry is capable of delivering world class competitive products to the world market into the next century. This programme will concentrate on as wide a range of implants for the human body as possible as well as supporting associated materials research. The Government expect that this research will lead to new products for the National Health Service and private health care.
More than 30 companies and 20 science based organisations have already indicated that they wish to be involved in individual collaborative research projects. Special efforts will be made to encourage the involvement of small and medium sized firms. This 25WA programme will be jointly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (£2 million), the Department of Health (£1.25 million), the Science and Engineering Research Council (£1.25 million) and the Medical Research Council (£0.5 million); matching support from industry, on a project by project basis, will be needed for this £10 million, five year programme.