One million pounds is being donated to Cardiff University’s newly created Centre for Burns Research.
The money is being given by The Vocational Training Charitable Trust (VTCT), an awarding body offering NVQs in Hairdressing, Beauty Therapy, Complimentary and Holistic Therapies.
The Trust has contributed the largest single donation to the burns research programme, which is soon to begin in South Wales.
The centre is being established by the Healing Foundation, a medical research charity funding work in the area of disfigurement.
It will be in partnership with Cardiff and Swansea University, and the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston Hospital, Swansea.
The prospects for the centre have also been enhanced with the approval to employ a Professor of Burn Injury Study, who will be appointed later this year following an international search and selection process.
Peter Wren, Chief Executive of the VTCT, claimed he was delighted to be supporting the appointment of the VTCT Professor.
He said: “Our work, and the careers of those we help to train in beauty therapy, is closely associated with appearance and beauty; about feeling and looking good.
“The area of disfigurement, and burns especially, is such an important, urgent and compelling cause.”
This will be the first major academic research centre of its kind in the country and will study the body’s immunological response to burns.
It is hoped the research will create a better understanding of how serious inflammation and infections caused by burns can be best treated.
