In Scotland, our clinical
and healthcare researchers have achieved an international recognition for the
excellence of their science. Investing in
Research / Improving Health sets out the aims and ambitions we have to
sustain and build upon current success. Indeed it is only by continuing to
invest in our outstanding research talent that we can generate the sound
evidence and exciting innovations upon which improvements to healthcare are
based.
It is against that
background that Investing in Research / Improving Health sets an ambitious
vision to place Scotland at the international forefront of clinical
translational research and the development of systems medicine. Its four broad
aims are; securing benefits to patients and the population at large; improving
population health; valuing and investing NHS research to ensure that the NHS
provides high quality efficient structures to support clinical research; and
building and sustaining skills.
The new strategy will also
help to drive economic development by fostering Scotland's efforts to develop a
world-leading biomedical R&D cluster comprising the NHS, universities and
industry. Central to these developments is the unstinting support shown for
clinical research by patients and the public in Scotland, for which we should
all be very grateful.