Women are to be offered half-price IVF fertility treatment at the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life in return for donating some of their eggs for research, in the first scheme of its kind.

Scientists from the North-East England Stem Cell Institute today will announce that the Medical Research Council has agreed funding that will contribute half the £3,000 cost of patients’ IVF treatment, in return for donating half their eggs.

The Newcastle team, who in 2005 created the world’s only proved human embryo so far, hope the new scheme will help step up their research into the potential of stem cells for treating conditions such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

By having an increased supply of fresh eggs, the scientists hope to clone more human embryos for research. Using a technique called therapeutic cloning, they will remove the donor’s genetic material from the egg and insert the nucleus from a patient's cell, so it divides and stem cells grow.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority confirmed its go-ahead for the new scheme earlier this year. NESCI has been operating a scheme, approved in 2005, under which IVF patients are asked to donate two fresh eggs to research if they have more than 12 eggs collected for their treatment. However, this arrangement produced only 66 eggs in seven months, too few for the scientists’ work to progress rapidly.

The new half-price IVF scheme will be available only for women aged 21 to 35 needing IVF because of infertility.

Priority will be given to couples in the northern region having treatment at the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life. The MRC has allocated £150,000 to cover the discounted rate and 80 women are expected to take up the scheme over two years. Currently, 500-600 women a year undergo IVF at the centre.

Professor Alison Murdoch, head of department at the centre, said: “Volunteers have been essential to medical research for many years and this is a way of engaging volunteers from a wider field in a research project.”

She added: “We expect this to open the door to some infertile women who may now find it less difficult to meet the cost of IVF.” There was no additional risk to the women as a result of egg sharing, she said.