The Universities of Warwick and Birmingham have been jointly awarded almost £20m to develop the world-class medical research undertaken at both institutions into practical applications for patient care. The two Universities aim to take research from basic science into new treatments for patients.

The University of Warwick has been awarded £9.8m to take new medical developments into clinical trials, significantly expanding international quality clinical trials activity in the region. This will help to fund the building of a new Clinical Trials building at Warwick and the refurbishment of facilities at the University of Birmingham, enabling expansion of existing clinical trials activity.

The University of Birmingham has been awarded £9.8m to develop world class biomedical research, with a focus on encouraging greater collaboration between scientists and industry.

The Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, has funded the Translational Medicine scheme as part of the Science City initiative, which draws together industry, business, education and the public sector, to establish the West Midlands region as a centre for world-class scientific research.

The funding will support a number of projects including the development of a dedicated human tissue biorepository at Birmingham, and the refurbishment of laboratories at Warwick.

A mobile clinical trials unit is also being funded which will visit regional GP surgeries and hospitals where facilities for clinical research do not exist.

The West Midlands has the largest concentration of clinical trials activity in Europe, with the ethnically diverse population of the region being a significant attraction to companies who need to recruit such populations onto trials.