Professor Keith Channon celebrates £113m funding for Oxford’s Biomedical Research Centre

Professor Keith Channon, Exeter’s Professorial Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine and director of Oxford’s Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), has good reason to celebrate. As the BRC prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of its foundation, in April 2017, it has been buoyed by the news that it has been awarded £113.7m from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).

Professor Channon said: “We were delighted. It was a highly competitive bidding process with no carry-over. We are very proud of our track record. There are 20 BRCs in the country and Oxford is one of the largest, and the only one to successively increase our funding.”

Since its inception the BRC has funded 2,000 projects carried out by partnerships between Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Utilising the talents of 10,000 medical personnel in Oxfordshire’s hospitals and 5,000 on-site researchers, it has led to breakthroughs in whole genome sequencing for rare diseases and cancer, reducing the risk of recurring stroke, replacing bedside paper charts with “early warning” tablet computers and developing an Ebola vaccine.

Professor Channon added: “It’s a great privilege to be involved with so many outstanding researchers and clinicians who are working so hard to advance research across the breadth of medicine. For me, it is a fantastic privilege.”

To read more about the work of the BRC and a profile of Professor Channon click here.