Medical research in Oxford is to receive a massive funding boost, with an investment of £57m from the NHS over the next five years.

The injection of funds came after the city was recognised by the National Institute for Health Research as one of the country's leading centres for biomedical research.

The application was submitted jointly by Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and the University of Oxford, who will receive £11.5m a year over the next five years.

Peter Jezzard, Herbert Dunhill Professor of Neuroimaging, added: "This is a very significant funding boost which will allow clinical staff to become much more involved in research.

"It will buy clinical staff time to do research as well as their day jobs."

Prof Keith Channon, a consultant cardiologist who works in Oxford University's cardiovascular medicine department, said: "This funding boost shows that Oxford has been selected as a national leader in this field and it will make a big difference to patient care - we will be able to see how new treatments work at the patient's bedside, not in a laboratory miles away."

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced that Oxford is to be one of five new "comprehensive" biomedical research centres of excellence across England that, together with six "specialist" centres, will share £450m over the next five years.

All of the centres will be within the NHS and run in conjunction with universities.