Liverpool scientists want more funding to tackle future pandemics

Scientists in Liverpool are urging the government to pump more money into vital clinical research so we're better prepared to deal with pandemics in the future.

This week - hundreds of volunteers are taking part in trials to find out if mixing and matching two different Covid-19 vaccines is as effective as having of two doses of the same jab.

But with experts predicting several new outbreaks in the coming decades

Professor John Wilding from the University of Liverpool says keeping ahead of the game needs to be prioritised:

"It's really important that we build back clinical research as strongly as possible. A lot of our research are very big trials, they're collaborative and international.

"They involve industry and government funders working together so it's really important clinical research is prioritised."

This view has been echoed by another expert who is leading the charge in combatting the virus in the future.

Professor Rasmita Raval is heading up the department developing anti-microbial surfaces (anti-viral touchscreens, self cleaning chip and pin and reusable PPE) at the University of Liverpool :

"In facing the Covid crisis what we have learned yesterday has helped us today so it is so important for the government to keep funding basic science so that we learn but then our local regions to connect that science with innovation so that we can translate it into products that help our city, our country and the world"