The Edwards and Steptoe Research Trust: commemorating the two great pioneers of our field and supporting their aspirations

Abstract

Trustees: Professor Martin Johnson FRCOG (Chief Executive Officer), Professor Peter Braude FRCOG, FMedSci, Ruth Edwards, Professor Sir Richard Gardner FRS, David Martin FCA (Treasurer) and Professor Andrew Steptoe FMedSci. Advisory panel: Dr Kamal Ahuja, Dr Peter Brinsden, Dr Jacques Cohen, Dr Alan DeCherney, Dr Colin Howles, Dr Zaid Kilani and Professor Andre´ Van Steirteghem. In 1971, Bob Edwards and Patrick Steptoe applied to the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) for funds to support their research on IVF that was to lead to the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, and thereby to the founding of the new academic and clinical discipline of assisted reproduction. Despite some internal support for the bid, the MRC declined to fund the work (Johnson et al., 2010Johnson M.H. Franklin S.B. Cottingham M. Hopwood N. Why the Medical Research Council refused Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe support for research on human conception in 1971.Hum. Reprod. 2010; 25: 2157-2174Crossref PubMed Scopus (60) Google Scholar). This blow to their aspirations came at about the same time that the Ford Foundation, which had funded Edwards’ work since 1963 through grants, first to Alan Parkes and then to Bunny Austin (the sequential heads of the Marshall Laboratory in Cambridge where Bob was working; see Johnson, 2011Johnson M.H. Robert Edwards: the path to IVF.Reprod. Biomed. Online. 2011; 23: 245-262Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (48) Google Scholar), cut back on their funding for reproduction research. Bob and Patrick were therefore to work under very difficult conditions on a make-do and mend basis. Some of their patients, aware of the difficulties, asked if they could help, and so was born the Edwards–Steptoe Research Trust. This trust was first registered as a medical charity in 1973. The various gifts from patients were all placed in this trust fund, as were fees that Bob and Patrick earned from lectures and consultancies. Initially, the fund was used to cover their own research expenses, according to the approved objectives which included: the alleviation of human infertility; the promotion and advancement of medical knowledge of human reproduction; the development of new methods of contraception and sterilisation; research into methods of preventing or alleviating genetic defects; the establishing of a training centre for the purpose of teaching the advanced techniques which may be developed for the purposes aforesaid; and the training of personnel in such techniques. Prominent in these objectives are the two themes of research and education to which both these pioneers were so committed. Later, by the 1990s when funding from other sources was more readily available, the Trust fund was used by Bob and his co-Trustees to support research by younger scientists and PhD students into more adventurous projects that were not yet ready for larger funding contracts – two further themes of youth and blue-skies research that are close to Bob’s heart. The fund was never large, varying between £50,000 and £60,000, but several grateful younger scientists benefitted from it and have gone on to notable careers. Then, in 2008, when Bob retired as an active Trustee, he asked Martin Johnson to take over its management, reconstitute the Trustee panel and use it to support those causes most dear to him. Over the past three years, the Trustee panel has been reformed, an advisory panel constituted, these changes approved by the Charity Commission and the tax relief status on donations in the UK and USA clarified and gained regulatory approval. The new Trustees have agreed that their immediate priority is to build an endowment fund for investment so that its income can be used to commemorate in perpetuity these two great pioneers and founding fathers of assisted reproduction. The Trustees have been delighted that Merck-Serono S.A. has kick-started this fund-raising with a generous donation of £25,000 and they hope that other pharmaceutical companies and private clinics around the world will wish to follow suit. In addition, many individual patients who have benefitted from these early discoveries may want to make small donations or to organise sponsored fund-raising as a token of appreciation and to commemorate these giants of medical science. Whether as a large or as a small potential donor, more information about the Trust and how to make donations can be found at http://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/edwardsandsteptoefund/. The Trustees hope to be in the position to start making awards again by 2013, when their stated (provisional) aims will be to use income generated from the endowed fund to support: the development of low-cost simpler therapies for use by patients with limited financial resources; developments that further ethical practice; seed-corn funds to help more junior investigators develop interdisciplinary research projects; opportunities to engage public education about assisted reproductive technologies; and follow-up studies. They look forward to your contributions to this worthwhile endeavour.