The Health Research Body (HRB) and Health Service Executive (HSE) have allocated €20 million towards a new clinical research centre in Galway.
The centre will be the first of its type in the State outside Dublin, and will involve a partnership with NUI Galway (NUIG) researchers and University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) clinical scientists. It will be built on UCHG grounds by 2009, and will employ a staff of 20 when fully established.
Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney described the investment as a "major boost for clinical research and patient care in the west". She said she had committed more than €50 million in capital funding through the HRB over five years to support key research programmes and infrastructure.
Ms Harney said the facility would "provide a world-class environment for patient-focused research with real benefits for patients. It will enable clinicians, the healthcare industry and other key partners to test innovative therapies, technologies and products and increase the speed at which scientific discoveries and innovations can be translated into better patient care. It will also build on the major investment by this Government in basic research facilities at NUI Galway in recent years."
Prof Tim O'Brien, UCHG consultant endocrinologist, head of the department of medicine at NUIG and director of the NUIG Regenerative Medicine Institute, said the centre would "complete the circle in terms of translating from basic research".
It would work closely with existing clinical research facilities in four Dublin hospitals, and would serve as a resource for any clinician who wanted to carry out further research - be they a physiotherapist or a doctor - he told The Irish Times.
Regenerative medicine, cancer, obstetrics and gynaecology, diabetes and inflammatory diseases are among the areas which the centre will focus on. Support will also be provided for studies conducted in GP settings, through analysis of samples taken, provision of statistical support and co-ordination of studies.
Rooms for gene and cell therapy will be specially designed, and it will also focus on research in other areas, such as heart, joint and spinal cord repair, according to Prof O'Brien.
Prof Larry Egan, head of the NUIG department of pharmacology and therapeutics and a co-applicant on the project, envisages new research programmes being established as part of the project - such as an MSc in clinical research and biostatistics and PhD programmes for clinicians.
HRB chief executive Dr Ruth Barrington said the project was an "indication of international excellence in clinical research", noting the strong track record which the HRB has in working with universities and hospitals.
The centre will be governed jointly by NUIG and the HSE, and will work with the Irish Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, involving the centres at Dublin teaching hospitals and the new HRB/Wellcome Trust facility at St James's Hospital Dublin.