Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford will lead on a £20 million initiative from the Department of Health to set up a UK Diabetes Research Network to co-ordinate diabetes research in the UK.

The network allows greater collaboration between diabetes researchers in order to develop long term strategies and treatments for managing diabetes.

As a result of the network, researchers will be able to conduct larger and more efficient clinical trials that will examine factors that have an influence on the development of diabetes, its management and the complications that arise from it.

The network will facilitate trials into diet, exercise and drug therapies and epidemiological studies, creating a national database of people with diabetes who might be interested in joining these studies. This is a significant development, as most diabetes care is carried out in the primary care sector by general practitioners and as a result databases of people with diabetes tend to be fragmented around the country.

The network will coordinate initiatives from health service groups, practitioners and academic groups as well as from industry.

Professor Sally Davies, Director of Research and Development at the Department of Health adds:

"The UK Diabetes Research Network will provide a world-class health service infrastructure to support clinical research and accelerate patient access to the most appropriate treatment and care in all parts of the country."