Health Research Board

The new HRB strategy clearly outlines a shift in focus of funding from basic biomedical research to patient-oriented research.

Speaking at the IPPOSI conference on 27 November 2009, Enda Connolly, CEO at the HRB, outlined how this shift in focus for HRB funding would become a reality through our funding mechanisms. The key points of his speech are captured here: -

Over the next five years the HRB will continue to support research of the highest quality and excellence.

We will gradually concentrate our resources into research that offers the most potential for rapid translation into impacts and benefits for patients, for population health and for the health system.

Our investment will focus on clinical including applied biomedical research, patient-oriented research, health services research and population health sciences research. The definitions relating to these research areas are listed below.

• Clinical research - Research with the goal of improving the diagnosis, and treatment (including rehabilitation and palliation), of disease and injury; improving the health and quality of life of individuals as they pass through normal life stages. It involves research on, or for the treatment of, patients.
• Applied Biomedical Research  - In contrast to basic biomedical research, applied research seeks to understand specific diseases in terms of their characteristics, manifestations, management, treatment and their relationship with predisposing factors. It includes research that is directed towards specific goals and discoveries such as the development of new drugs, therapies, devices or surgical procedures. It involves using existing knowledge (gained from basic research) and methodically expanding this knowledge to address a specific clinical issue. Applied biomedical research includes research conducted with animal and non-animal model systems, computer models, and may even include studies on human subjects or samples that do not have a diagnostic or therapeutic orientation.
• Patient-oriented research - Keeps the patient at the centre of the research goals and generates clinically relevant results. Defined as research conducted with human subjects, or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena. Projects in this space often include components of applied biomedical work and/or components of health services research in addition to clinical research. Research studies involving in vivo or other appropriate pre-clinical models are eligible, as are computational or bio-informatics studies with an emphasis on yielding clinically relevant results. Research should focus on (i) mechanisms of human disease (ii) therapeutic interventions (iii) clinical trials and (iv) use of new technologies for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease (v) emotional, social, behavioural and developmental mechanisms of health and disease.
• Health services research - Research with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health professionals and the health care system, through changes to practice and policy. Health services research is a multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that studies how social factors, financing systems, organisational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviours affect access to health care, the quality and cost of healthcare and ultimately health and well-being.
• Population health sciences - Research with the goal of improving the health of the population, or of defined sub-populations, through a better understanding of the ways in which social, cultural, environmental, occupational and economic factors determine health status or through the identification of effective interventions for improving health status and reducing health inequalities.

The HRB will no longer fund research projects which are classified as wholly, or predominantly, basic biomedical research – defined as research conducted to increase the knowledge base and understanding of the physical, chemical and functional mechanisms of life processes and disease. It is often called fundamental or ‘pure’ research and is not directed to solving any particular biomedical problem in humans or animals.  It provides the building blocks upon which other types of biomedical research are based.

We firmly believe that basic biomedical science is essential and must continue. Other agencies, including SFI and the HEA, have a mandate to support and are currently major funders of basic research.  It is essential that all research agencies work in collaboration to avoid any duplication. The HRB will work with other agencies to ensure basic biomedical research is supported into the future.

We will also work with the MRCG to support research that meets the needs and priorities of the research charities and will continue to fund research investment in any disease area including rare diseases.