The Children’s Hospital Charity commit to invest £5m in research at Sheffield Children’s

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is receiving an incredible £5m funding boost towards research thanks to The Children’s Hospital Charity.

The Charity has quadrupled its investment into research at Sheffield Children’s, committing to supporting with £1m per year, over the next five years. The funding will offer more opportunities for research across Sheffield Children’s, helping improve care and treatment for children and young people now, and in the future.

The funding will enable researchers to research and develop new and innovative ways to improve the health of children and young people under the care of Sheffield Children’s from South Yorkshire and beyond. Sheffield Children’s already takes part in research on a national and international scale, collaborating with universities and hospitals to make discoveries which can help prevent, diagnose and treat conditions that affect children and young people.

Research can help with things like studying back braces for scoliosis, supporting trials to help tackle food allergies, finding new ways to measure things like stress hormones without needles and blood tests, and help find the best way to protect babies from viruses.*

Dr Meena Balasubramanian, Clinical Director of Research at Sheffield Children’s and clinical academic at the University of Sheffield, said: “This investment is outstanding, the next five years are looking really exciting. We’ll be able to collaborate with, and access, greater resources than ever before and be able to engage with many more opportunities to drive more research at Sheffield Children’s as part of our work towards creating healthier futures for children and young people.

“We’re very grateful to The Children’s Hospital Charity for committing to invest this significant sum into research at Sheffield Children’s. It will not only support the growth of research, it will help to develop skills of research staff, fund studies and projects, and further build our infrastructure to support research and collaboration, including engaging more with children and young people, who are at the heart of what we do.”

The Children’s Hospital Charity CEO, John Armstrong, said: “We are proud to support the Trust’s ambitions to become one of the top paediatric hospitals in the world, and believe one of the best ways we can do that is through investment in research.

“The Charity champions excellence and innovation, and our current capital appeal project sees us fundraising to support the build of the world-class National Centre for Child Health Technology, to help tackle some of the biggest health challenges of our time, all under one roof. But there’s still more to be done.

“We have committed to quadrupling our annual investment in research, with a contribution of £5m over the next five years, which will help build the capacity and infrastructure necessary to enable Sheffield Children’s to become world leaders, driving and delivering cutting-edge research, and enabling far-reaching impact.”

Colleagues at Sheffield Children’s will be able to apply for the funding for research studies into areas such as rare disease, health inequalities, child welfare and safeguarding, child health technologies, mental health and wellbeing and co-production and children’s voices.

* Studies referenced:

Scoliosis study  and following patient story 

Allergy trial 

Stress hormone study 

Harmonie study