Leading health charities seek research proposals in risk reduction

Diabetes Ireland have joined forces with three other leading health charities in a unique call for research proposals to identify ways to reduce the risk of cancer, dementia, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Collectively cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia affect as many as 500,000 people in Ireland every year. Now, for the first time ever, Diabetes Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the Irish Heart Foundation, have come together to support a research initiative aimed at identifying real measures to reduce the risk of these diseases.
The leading health charities, all members of the Medical Research Charities Group (MRCG), are seeking to meaningfully reduce the risk of these chronic conditions in Ireland by funding a research initiative focusing specifically on risk factors common to all four disease groups.
The charity partners are in search of proposals that will focus on known common risk factors, such as tobacco use, poor diet, and physical inactivity, and which will look at how these risk factors could be tackled though behavioral and lifestyle changes.
The collaboration reflects the shared commitment of all four charities to address the issue of risk reduction for chronic conditions at a national level.
Dr Anna Clarke, Health Promotion and Research Manager with Diabetes Ireland, said “the synergy generated by these four charities working together captures the urgent need to address the common risk factors for chronic conditions. We look forward to funding a research project that will improve the health of all our communities”.
The charity partners are joining forces under a funding initiative funded by the Medical Research Charities Group (MRCG) and Health Research Board (HRB). Under this call funding of up to €285,000 will be provided for a period of up to three years.
Both the HRB and MRCG commended the health charities for coming together to fund a research initiative in the field of risk reduction.
Chief Executive of the Health Research Board, Graham Love, commented, “This combined approach, focused on prevention, could yield significant dividends for a range of national health policies and practices. I would like to commend the four charities for their foresight and I’ll be very interested to see the results.”
Chairperson of the MRCG, Philip Watt, said, “The MRCG is delighted to see four of its members collaborating on this joint funding scheme call. This is the first time that four charities have partnered on the joint funding scheme and we believe it is a positive step forward which can only be of benefit to health research in Ireland. By partnering on this prevention call, the charities and researchers can combine their knowledge and expertise which will provide new learnings for all involved.”

The closing date for research proposals is January 15th 2016. All applications must be submitted by email to [email protected]. 

ENDS

About Diabetes Ireland
Diabetes Ireland Research Alliance, the subsidiary research charity of Diabetes Ireland, aims to promote, support and fund research related to the causes, prevention and cure of diabetes. In 2013 an estimated 225,000 people in Ireland were living with diabetes. Diabetes research will improve understanding of the condition and offers the best hope of finding a cure. Diabetes Ireland Research Alliance, through collaboration with others, helps to achieve this by supporting and funding high quality global and Irish based diabetes research. 

About the MRCG/HRB scheme
This call is facilitated through the Medical Research Charities Group (MRCG), which has worked with the Health Research Board (HRB) since 2006 to jointly fund medical research in Ireland. The MRCG/HRB scheme provides funding for clearly defined research projects in disease areas of strategic relevance to each individual charity. The MRCG/HRB Joint Funding Scheme runs annually and provides awards to charity led research projects whereby 50% of the project is funded by the Health Research Board (HRB) and 50% is funded by the charity.
An umbrella group of 35 medical research and patient support charities, the MRCG believe that patient organisations should lead and stimulate medical research driven by patient need. They work to identify and remove the barriers to medical research and work collaboratively with the patient community, the research community and policy makers to improve the research infrastructure.
The Health Research Board is the lead agency in Ireland supporting and funding health research.