Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) welcomes the National Children’s Research Centre (NCRC) into CHI.
Monday, 25th March 2024 Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) welcomes the National Children’s Research Centre (NCRC) into CHI.
March 25, 2024
All CHI locations
Research
Today, Monday 25th March, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is delighted to announce the welcoming of the National Children’s Research Centre (NCRC) into CHI. This very welcome milestone will enable us to further enhance our ability to bring care, education and research excellence to the bedside and foster optimal therapies for children in Ireland and beyond.
The NCRC has been based on the CHI at Crumlin campus, working closely with CHI researchers and supported for many years by the Children’s Health Foundation, our fundraising partner. The Centre has worked to promote children’s health research and to improve child health outcomes across Ireland through investment in cutting-edge facilities, grant awarding and research leadership.
As of today, the NCRC is now incorporated into Children’s Health Ireland. This brings its functions, staff and facilities - including state-of-the-art research labs and critically important biosample processing and storage facilities - under the CHI umbrella. The incorporation of NCRC into CHI will allow us to take advantage of the experience and expertise of the NCRC team and to drive the integration of basic science, clinical and translational research and grant expertise. This integrated research environment will ensure that the research we do across CHI continues to be high-quality, focused on patients and families and internationally competitive.
Paul McNally, Director of Research and Innovation, Children’s Health Ireland, said:
“Throughout the last 5 years, our teams in Children’s Health Ireland have worked hard to coordinate, integrate and modernise the previously separate research structures and supports across CHI sites. This next step in our development program incorporates cutting-edge translational, basic science and grant functions into CHI, and promises to transform our ability to deliver improved health outcomes for children."
This co-ordinated CHI research infrastructure, alongside innovation and education, falls under the remit of the Paediatric Academic Health Science Centre (PAHSC) – the new structure that sees CHI and its 4 Dublin university partners, Dublin City University (DCU), RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD), formally partnering together to advance academic child health across our campuses.
The PAHSC is part of a wider network of academic child health across Ireland that is currently in development and promises to see Ireland as a key player in advancing child health internationally.