New Future Medicines Institute backed by government and industry

A £55 million investment by the Northern Ireland Executive and consortium members, will help drive innovation in precision medicine.

Managed by UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund and based at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), the Future Medicines Institute is backed by a consortium of leading medical companies.

Precision medicine creates treatments tailored to a patient’s individual needs, including their diagnosis, genetics and even lifestyle, making it more likely to work.

Medics, academics and industry join forces

A shared lab will see medical, academic and industry experts joining forces in a bid to advance the precision medicine sector in both Northern Ireland and the wider UK.

Announcing the multi-million pound investment, Economy Minister Conor Murphy said the new institute would help build on Northern Ireland’s growing diagnostic and therapeutic sector.

Driving research and development

Professor Christopher Scott is Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences at QUB.

Professor Scott said the institute would show Northern Ireland had the right trained workforce to see products through from research to development:

We are treading new ground together with new equipment and expertise.

The overarching goal is to drive the productivity of research and development that we do in Northern Ireland.

We want to make the process more accessible and de-risk the involvement of research and development for our companies.

Top image:  Credit: JuSun, iStock, Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

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