Charity quadruples investment to £1m a year in “outstanding” move for Sheffield Children’s Hospital

Previously committed to supporting with £250,000 per year, The Children’s Hospital Charity’s funding will help improve care and treatment for children and young people across South Yorkshire and beyond.

The charity has committed to supporting with £1m per year, over the next five years.

Researchers have been working on developing back braces for scoliosis, held trials to help tackle food allergies, found new ways to measure things like stress hormones without needles, and helped find ways to protect babies from viruses.

The extra funding will offer more opportunities for research across Sheffield Children’s, which already takes part in research on a national and international scale.

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.”

Colleagues can apply for funding to study areas such as rare disease, health inequalities, child welfare and safeguarding, and child health technologies.

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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.

“The contribution of £5m over the next five years 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.”