These grants, awarded annually, have resulted in high quality, internationally recognised research, and have enabled our academic trainees to become leaders of paediatric research.

Many important developments have been made possible by your fundraising including:

Dr Andrew Peet clinician scientist leading research into brain tumour imaging at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, commented that work resulting from a £50k “seed grant” from Birmingham Children's Hospital Research Foundation in 2002 had led to 38 further successful grant applications, generating more than £30million, resulting in over 100 peer-reviewed publications, and presentations at more than 30 national and international conferences. This had culminated in the opening of the new 3T MRI centre putting Birmingham Children’s Hospital at the forefront of research in this area.

The Poppy Fields Appeal supporting Brain Tumour Research at Birmingham Children’s Hospital

Poppy Guilder was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was just 14-months-old. To help raise awareness of her condition, her family launched the Poppy Fields Appeal and to date have donated an incredible £230,000 towards Dr Andrew Peet's Brain Tumour Research Fund at our hospital. Dr Peet is constantly researching new treatments and scanning techniques, to save more lives and improve the quality of life of survivors like Poppy.

Now an active teenager who lives life to the full, Poppy is an inspiration to everyone she meets. We're all so proud of everything she's achieved!

 

Doctoral Research into the genetics of infantile parkinsonism

Dr Manju Kurian, now lead clinician scientist/honorary consultant at GOSH/ICH, gained a PhD and won numerous awards for research funded by BCHRF including the University of Birmingham Roberts Prize for her Doctoral Research into the genetics of infantile parkinsonism. Her work with Professor Maher and Dr Evangeline Wassmer, consultant neurologist, led to the identification of novel genes for severe childhood neurological disease, new understanding of gene-related pathogenesis, and the characterisation of gene-specific phenotypes.

Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS)

Dr Heather Duncan, Intensive Care Consultant at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, whose £40K Birmingham Children's Hospital Research Foundation research project grant in 2005 enabled her to develop the Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS). The PEWS dramatically reduced the number of cardiac arrests in the hospital and led to a successful bid for £75K from an external charity, and a valuable partnership with the McLaren F1 racing team to create remote monitoring systems that were more sensitive and rapidly responsive.

Download the full review of the Research Foundation's first 10 years

Call For Proposals

BWCHRF have opened applications for the 2019 grant awards. Applicants can present proposals for their research projects and apply for any of the six category awards relating to their research. Aiming to support high quality research into child health and disease, including prenatal and maternal factors, proposals can include clinical trials, laboratory and clinical experimental medicine, hypothesis-driven data collection or tissue banking and qualitative studies.

The closing date for proposals is midday Friday 16 November 2018.

You can find all the information for the application here.

Projects Lay Summaries

BWCHRF have published a list of applicants along with their projects titles and lay summaries that have been awarded grants since 2009 - view projects.

BWCH Research Foundation: All Awards

Since 2002, 135 projects have been awarded grants by BWCHRF to applicants to carry out their research. You can find a list of the projects, along with their status by downloading the document.

Current membership of the BWCHRF Scientific Committee

Download the current list of the BWCHRF Scientific Committee.

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust R&D Strategy

Download the current R&D strategy.