CANCER Research UK will give support worth more than £6 million to its two research centres in Scotland with a major emphasis on developing training for women clinicians.
The charity said yesterday that it would award £6.2m to its research centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow to train early-career clinician scientists – doctors who also carry out medical research.
The programme in Scotland will introduce new measures – including more flexible training options and improved mentorship and networking opportunities – to better support women clinicians who want to get involved and stay in cancer research.
Cancer Research UK says the joint Clinical Academic Training Programme Award will transform clinical research training in Scotland, and there will also be a focus on building a stronger clinician scientist network in Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I welcome these clinical research training awards from Cancer Research UK to support research careers and the development of more talented medical research scientists in Scotland working to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“We recognise there can be obstacles to recruiting women into science-based professions and we are delighted that CRUK are joining us in the effort to tackle these inequalities. Workforce is a key ambition of our £100m cancer strategy and we aim to have a diverse, sustainable, workforce caring for people with cancer.”
Michelle Mitchell, CRUK’s chief executive, said: “Training early-career clinician scientists is a vital part of our work to save lives through research. Clinician scientists have a very important role to play by bringing their knowledge and experience of treating people with cancer to scientific research.
“If we’re to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured, we need all our doctors and scientists to be able to reach their full potential. That’s why we are taking action to introduce more flexible training options for early-career clinician scientists. We want to encourage more women clinicians to get involved in cancer research and create powerful role models that will help attract and retain more clinician scientists in the future.”
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