Foundation Continues Pivotal Medical Research

Media release

Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences
The University of Auckland

13 November 2009

The Auckland Medical Research Foundation (AMRF) has donated $400,000 toward the redevelopment of The University of Auckland's Grafton Campus, as a further expression of its support for medical and health research at the University.

The AMRF has provided more than $33 million for medical research since 1955 It is a pivotal funder in the Auckland region, and has been the most enduring supporter of medical research at the University.

The current donation will support the major redevelopment underway at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, which will upgrade outdated and cramped facilities that were built in 1965.

The AMRF is the first organisation to commit support to the redevelopment programme which began earlier this year.

Mr Bruce Cole, president of the AMRF, believes the donation links directly with the Foundation's tenet that research is the lifeline of medicine.

"The Foundation is delighted to support the development of these new facilities at the medical faculty as, like many aspects of the medical world, the fields of education and research are inextricably linked," he says.

"We were supporting medical research at the University for ten years before the original medical school building construction even began at the Grafton Campus, and again we are happy to be the first to put our support behind the next exciting phase of medical education and research at Auckland."

Professor Iain Martin, Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, paid tribute to the Foundation's commitment to medical research spanning six decades.

"The ability of the Foundation to galvanise support from the community of Auckland is hugely impressive," he says.

"Each year the AMRF funds as many as 25 to 30 individual research projects as well as travel grants, post doctoral fellowships and PhD scholarships and in many ways the foundation has helped chart the direction of a significant proportion of medical research in the region. Medical researchers, clinicians, patients and the wider community are all in their debt."

ENDS

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