Four groups to benefit from over £4million funding for eating disorder research

The awards follow an inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Eating Disorders. A group led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) announced the funding in autumn 2022.

Beat will work with at least two of the recipients, ensuring people with lived experience of eating disorders are at the heart of their activities.

• King’s College London will lead an initiative to improve how eating disorder data is collected across the UK. They’ll also support the study of blood samples by creating a ‘biobank’, making it easier for future researchers to study eating disorders and develop new treatments.
  
• University College London will lead a collaboration on integrating eating disorders into the ‘Born in Bradford’ study (recently serialised by BBC Radio 4). This will build new research methods and hypotheses around the impacts of social media, school environments, and neighbourhoods on the risk of eating disorders developing in young people.
  

Chair of the APPG on Eating Disorders, Wera Hobhouse MP said:

‘I warmly welcome this funding. The APPG’s ‘Breaking the Cycle’ report highlighted the urgent need for investment in eating disorder research to improve our understanding of these serious mental illnesses. I would like to thank the funders for responding to the findings of our inquiry by providing targeted investment to build up the capacity of the UK eating disorder research field.

While this is an important step forward, this must be part of a long-term effort to ensure that UK eating disorder researchers have the resources they need to achieve the major advances in knowledge that we so urgently need.’

Beat’s Chief Executive, Andrew Radford said:

‘This marks a key milestone for UK eating disorder research.

We would like to thank the members of the APPG on Eating Disorders for their work on the inquiry. We are also very grateful for the generous contributions of the Vogelgezang Foundation, towards Beat’s campaigning, that enabled us to support the APPG to conduct their inquiry and to follow up its recommendations with the Medical Research Council and other major funders.

We commend the funders that have contributed to this investment and thank the academics and people with lived experience that helped shape this funding call.

Going forward, we must ensure that momentum is not only maintained but built upon over the long term. This will require continued leadership from these major funders. We will continue campaigning to expand the pool of funders given the role investment in research plays in ending the pain and suffering of eating disorders

Securing ongoing funding for research is crucial to improving our understanding of what causes eating disorders, how best to treat them and how to prevent them developing.'

The full list of funders that contributed to the fund are:

• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Medical Research Foundation
• National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)