NIHR GOSH BRC and CRF joint research support activity strategies

To deliver a large and successful portfolio of research projects, research support activities are needed to help us:

• to involve and engage patients and the public in our research projects and decision making
• to ensure we include a diverse range of researchers, patients and the public in our research activities
• to help us offer the best research career development opportunities for our staff
• to allow us to engage with business partners to maximise the potential impact of our research
• to help us communicate our research findings to our research community and the wider public

The links below will take you to joint strategies which outline our approach to providing these research support activities through the NIHR GOSH Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility.

The strategies relate to our research activities at GOSH and our partner organisations which are described below.

Great Ormond Street Hospital is an international centre of excellence in child healthcare. It is an acute specialist children’s hospital with a mission to provide world-class care to children and young people with rare, complex and difficult-to-treat conditions. There are over 60 recognised clinical specialities based at GOSH, the UK’s widest range of specialist health services for children and young people on one site. Our patients are referred from other hospitals across the UK and overseas, with more than half coming from outside London. Our patient population enables the CRF to support a range of early-phase research, particularly in rare or complex disease. Over 30% of patients seen in the CRF have one or more significant co existing conditions and as such, the CRF is well positioned to facilitate research developed through the NIHR GOSH BRC, and to provide the support to develop these into early-phase clinical trials. GOSH’s vision, is to ‘help children with complex health needs fulfil their potential’, by putting ‘the child first and always’.

GOSH is a research hospital, focused on embedding research into everything we do. We know that patients treated at hospitals that carry out research have better outcomes – they have more confidence in their care, they feel more informed, and they tend to survive longer. We are focused on embedding research into everything we do, aiming to offer participation in research to every patient, and better understanding of our research to every staff member and volunteer – making GOSH a true Intelligent Research Hospital.

The University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), together with GOSH, forms the largest concentration of children's health research in Europe. Its mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of children, and the adults they will become, through world-class research, education and public engagement.

Together, GOSH and UCL GOS ICH form an internationally renowned centre for translational research and innovation.

In December 2022 we created a new research network, the Paediatric Excellence Initiative (PEI), with our partners at Alder Hey, Sheffield and Birmingham children’s hospitals. The PEI collaboration aims to share research and technology advancements, improve support for research education, and provide faster translation of novel tests and therapies into the clinic, maximising access to cutting edge research for patients and families throughout the UK. Alongside our current research programmes, we will work together to understand the needs of our patients and families to help identify future research priorities to support children and young people.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research GOSH Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) is a partnership between GOSH and UCL GOS ICH. The partnership was first awarded BRC status by the NIHR in 2007. In July 2022, the NIHR awarded BRC status to the NIHR

GOSH BRC for a further five years from December 2022 to November 2027 .

The NIHR GOSH CRF has a remit to deliver experimental medicines with a focus on early phase clinical research. It opened in December 2010 and was initially funded through charitable donation and NIHR GOSH BRC Infrastructure award. In 2017 the CRF was awarded NIHR CRF funding and status and is now moving onto its second term of five-year NIHR CRF funding. The CRF has a strong history of engagement with children and young people (CYP) and their families to raise awareness of early-phase research, ensuring PPIEP continues to inform all aspects of our research activity. This new term of five-year NIHR CRF funding will enable us to build upon our existing work whilst strengthening our engagement and reach to underrepresented patients and public groups.