The UK shows its support for Our Future Health
As a health research programme, we have always relied on the support of the UK public to help everyone live longer and healthier lives.
In October 2022, we opened three clinics and welcomed our first volunteers to their appointments. Today, less than three years and hundreds more clinics later, we can say that we’ve now passed 2.5 million volunteers.
It means we’re over half-way to our goal of recruiting up to five million adults living in the UK.
The 2.5m milestone arrived as the UK Government announced up to £354 million in extra funding for our programme.
The funding was revealed in the Government’s new Modern Industrial Strategy report. Writing in a national newspaper, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the strategy is designed to “make the UK a global powerhouse for MedTech and medicines.”
He added that Our Future Health “will help spot emerging diseases earlier so we can act sooner”.
Wes’s words were reflected in another report that was published in July. The 10 Year Health Plan for England outlines the Government’s plans to improve the NHS over the next decade. Central to its vision is the idea of preventing and detecting diseases earlier.
Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer said: “We will reach patients earlier, to catch illness before it spreads and prevent it in the first place, by making the healthy choice the easy choice.”
A central role in the future of healthcare
Reflecting on the funding announcement, Dr Raghib Ali OBE, Chief Executive of Our Future Health, said: “We warmly welcome the Government’s commitment to the life sciences sector and the focus on supporting our world class research and development.
“We’re proud that Our Future Health will play a central role in helping to deliver the NHS’s bold new 10-year plan, with its ambitious vision for prevention and personalised care.
“By harnessing the power of genomics and population scale data, we have a unique opportunity to shift the focus of healthcare – from treating illness to proactively identifying and supporting those at risk of disease.
“This plan marks a major step forward in supporting our goal of enabling scientific research breakthroughs.”
Raghib said that Our Future Health will use the new investment to expand our programme, helping researchers to unlock new breakthroughs.
“We’ll be genotyping more of our volunteers, improving the tooling researchers use to analyse our data, and facilitating researchers to invite volunteers onto new clinical trials.
“We also plan to establish the viability of integrated risk scores for heart disease and diabetes, in partnership with the NHS.
“None of these developments could take place without the ongoing support of the public. Millions of people across the UK are already helping to shape the future of healthcare by taking part in Our Future Health.
“It’s been immensely heartening to see the nation’s response to our programme over the past three years. We are showing that together, we can help everyone live longer and healthier lives.”
Let’s prevent disease together
By volunteering for Our Future Health, you can help health researchers discover new ways to prevent, detect and treat common conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s.