Our new research strategy
Pancreatic Cancer UK is committed to increasing the focus on
pancreatic cancer research in the UK. Over recent years we have
supported innovative research on early detection and diagnosis and
into more effective treatments and sought to attract new talent
into pancreatic cancer research.
We have reviewed our research programme as part of the Study for
Survival with a view to understanding what is needed to improve
outcomes for pancreatic cancer. As a result we have developed our
research strategy to ensure that we target our funding in order to
make the most impact over the next few years and enable us to play
a key role in moving the pancreatic cancer research agenda forward
in the UK.
Our resultant research programme will continue to develop and
support innovative research projects for patient benefit, increase
the number of researchers directly working on pancreatic cancer and
support collaborative working across disciplines and
institutions.
Our new strategy has four key strands:
1. Commissioned research
We will actively commission research, nationally and or
internationally, in areas that we believe offer greatest potential
to save lives or where there are opportunities for us to meet an
immediate need that other funders are not addressing. We will
decide on which areas to focus on by conducting a further and more
detailed analysis of the international pancreatic cancer research
landscape in partnership with the wider pancreatic cancer research
community. The first research in this programme will be
commissioned in 2012.
2. Developing future leaders
We believe that attracting and supporting new researchers is
essential to develop the kind of 'critical mass' of UK talent that
is needed to deliver world-class, ground-breaking pancreatic cancer
research. From September this year, we will fully establish a
Pancreatic Cancer UK Future Research Leaders Fund,
which will start by providing fellowships for talented clinical PhD
students in pancreatic cancer. We will do this in partnership with
the Medical Research Council and also look for other partners to
work with. To allow us to make this enhanced investment we will not
run an open call for research grant proposals in 2011/12.
3. National and international collaboration
We firmly believe that national and international collaboration
is needed to increase political and public focus on pancreatic
cancer. We also believe that by working together we can ensure that
existing pancreatic cancer research funds are used as effectively
as possible. We will build on and widen the partnerships and
collaborative efforts we developed during the Study for Survival in
order to move this agenda forward.
4. Lobbying for increased funding
Pancreatic cancer has suffered from a legacy of neglect where
research funding falls significantly below what it needs to be to
make a real difference to this disease. Working closely with our
partners and supporters we will lobby politicians and policy makers
to increase pancreatic cancer research investment in the UK.