Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the proportion funding his Department provides for cancer research that is allocated to brain tumour-related research.

Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests over £1.6 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR spent £133 million on cancer research in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority.

Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, the NIHR directly invested £11.8 million in research projects focused on brain tumours. In addition, the NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, for instance facilities, services, and the research workforce, are estimated to be £37.5 million, supporting the delivery of 261 brain tumour research studies and enabling over 11,400 people to participate in potentially life-changing brain tumour research in the National Health Service.

In 2024, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities, to stimulate high quality brain tumour research applications, as part of the Government’s commitment to developing new lifesaving and life-improving research, supporting those diagnosed and living with brain tumours. Further information on the NIHR’s new research funding opportunities is available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/new-funding-opportunities-novel-brain-tumour-research-launched

Additionally, a new national Brain Tumour Research Consortium was established in December 2024 to bring together researchers from a range of different disciplines and institutions with the aim of driving scientific advancements in how we prevent, detect, manage, and treat cancers in adults and children. The NIHR is also working closely with research partners, including the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, to attract new researchers, develop the community, and support researchers to submit high-quality research funding proposals, which should result in more effective treatments.

The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including brain tumours.