Action for ME blog post, 6 March 2018: UK CFS/M.E. Research Collaborative
Since its inception in 2013, the UK CFS/M.E. Research Collaborative (CMRC) has successfully brought together significant numbers of researchers from across the UK and internationally with charities, mainstream funders and patients.
Aiming to drive interest and funding in CFS/ME research – which, as highlighted by the CMRC’s 2016 M.E./CFS Research Funding report, represents less than 1% of all active grants given by UK mainstream funding agencies – the CMRC has held four successful conferences, initiated and supported new collaborations, worked with mainstream funders and secured interest from pharma/industry, and brought researchers in from outside of the field as well as partners from charities covering overlapping illnesses.
Following a meeting of its Executive Board in February 2018, the CMRC agreed on a new purpose, objectives and values, which replace its previous Charter:
Our purpose
To promote the discovery of the biological mechanisms that underpin CFS/ME, which, together with clinical observation, will drive the development of targeted new treatments for this highly underserved patient population.
Our objectives
- To design, implement and analyse the outcome of a cross-stakeholder, comprehensive, national research strategy for CFS/ME and experimental medicine.
- To create an open cross-sector platform for effective knowledge-exchange and datasharing both nationally and internationally, in order to optimise research, raise awareness of the disease, and influence policymakers and investors.
Values
- We are an intellectually generous community sharing data, best practice and technologies.
- We are a creative community harnessing new ideas, new technologies and new ways of working.
- We are a collaborative community inviting all stakeholders to join our programmes and shape our activity.
- We are an enabling community, facilitating the leverage of further resources for CFS/ME research.
