Marie Curie’s response to the Association of Medical Research Charities government briefing on the impact of coronavirus on charity-supported medical research

The Association of Medical Research Charities has produced a briefing to provide evidence of the significant challenges the sector is facing and outlines it’s asks of the government to ensure the continuity of charity funded research now and in the future.

Dr Sabine Best, Head of Research at Marie Curie said:

“Recruitment to palliative and end of life care research studies, which involve people with a terminal illness and their carers, families and friends, is currently standing still.  Clinical researchers are being deployed into frontline NHS care to help support the nation in the current situation, something which Marie Curie is fully supportive of. Elsewhere there are researchers employed by universities and funded by Marie Curie who are currently not able to progress further with their funded projects.

Marie Curie supports the Association of Medical Research Charities’ request for urgent clarification from Government and universities on how the furloughed staff scheme applies to researchers within universities whose salaries are funded by charities. Also how the salaries of clinical researchers seconded back to the NHS frontline will be recovered where they have continued to be paid by a charity.

Targeted emergency funding for research charities is particularly important for us to ensure that research in palliative and end of life care, which is hugely underfunded, can continue in the future.”