Medical researchers ‘desperate’ for funds

Press, 11 December 1989, Page 19

Medical researchers ‘desperate’ for funds

PA Dunedin Staff may have to be laid off and specially developed strains of rats and mice killed if no decision is made on the future of medical research funding, according to a researchers’ association. The president of the Association of Researchers in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Otago branch, Professor Sam Sneyd, said the continuity of research funding had been put in doubt because of a lack of direction over the future of medical research funding. The Medical Research Council planned to cancel the first round of grants next year because of those doubts. Researchers relying on successful applications to continue research could

be faced with destroying in-bred strains of rats and mice which had been specially developed. There would be no money to pay staff so workers would have to be laid off. Professor Sneyd, who is a member of the council, said the round could be reinstated if an announcement of the future of the council was made immediately. The council supplies most of the funding for medical research in New Zealand and is given a three-yearly grant from the Government. However, a report into the future of research funding has suggested that the council be replaced by a Health Research Council and the secretariat moved from Auckland to Wellington. Professor Sneyd said the Minister of Health, Ms

Clark, had given no indication of what the future was for the council. The council employs a number of staff on tenure and Professor Sneyd said that if all the tenured staff were made redundant the council would be faced with a bill of $2.4 million.