Reaping the rewards: a vision for UK medical science

In anticipation of the general election in 2010, the Academy of Medical Sciences outlined its vision for UK medical science. The vision highlighted how groundbreaking advances in medical science offered the next UK Government an unprecedented opportunity to reinvigorate the economy, to enhance the productivity of the NHS and to make public services more cost-effective.

This report led directly to the commissioning by Government of the Academy's report on the regulation and governance of health research. The key points outlined in the report continue to underpin our policy work.

Sir David Cooksey GBE FMedSci (Chair)
Chairman
UK Financial Investments

Professor Fran Balkwill OBE FMedSci
Professor of Cancer Biology and Centre Lead for Translational Oncology, Centre for Cancer and Inflammation Barts and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry

Professor Sir John Bell FRS HonFREng PMedSci 
Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

Professor Carol Dezateux CBE FMedSci
Director of the MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health, Institute for Child Health, University College London

Professor Sir Andrew Haines FMedSci
Director, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Professor Ron Laskey FRS FMedSci
Honorary Co-Director of the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, University of Cambridge

Dr Melanie Lee FMedSci
Director, Think10

Professor Sir Alex Markham FMedSci
Professor of Medicine, University of Leeds

Professor Patrick Maxwell FMedSci
Head of the Division of Medicine, University College London

Professor Terence Rabbitts FRS FMedSci
Director of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds

Professor Jonathan Seckl FRSE FMedSci
Director of Research at the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh

Professor Stephen Smith FMedSci
Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Principal of the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London

Professor Patrick Vallance FMedSci
Senior Vice-President for Drug Discovery, GlaxoSmithKline

Observer

Sue Middleton
Director of Corporate Government Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline

The vision document made seven key points:

• To benefit patients the NHS must become a willing participant in health research.
• The regulatory environment is driving medical science abroad
• Innovative incentives must firmly root the medical science industries in the UK
• Publicly funded health research needs further coordination
• Public health challenges must become cross-Departmental priorities
• Health research should be used as a driver of foreign policy and international Development
• The UK must grow and sustain its world-class biomedical workforce for our knowledge economy