GOSH Charity Research Strategy 2023–2028

Many of the children who pass through the doors of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) have rare or complex conditions that are life-limiting or life-threatening. It is often a place of last hope and with that comes a huge responsibility to make life-changing differences for the children and their families.

The following priorities will help us to achieve our ambition of transforming the lives of seriously ill children through research-led care:

By unravelling the origins of disease, researchers can uncover new opportunities to diagnose, treat and even prevent illness. This knowledge is vital to achieving the breakthroughs of tomorrow, for example, discovering new biomarkers for earlier diagnosis or new targets for better treatments and cures.

We will:

• Expand funding for pioneering discovery research through our existing National Call funding scheme, and launch new discovery research funding schemes
• Support discovery research in a broader range of childhood diseases, particularly in underfunded areas
• Encourage collaboration and sharing of knowledge through open access publications, and increase our funding of conferences and workshops

Discovery science provides new ideas and opportunities for tackling rare or complex diseases in children. We also want to enable the translation of new knowledge about child health into more precise and faster diagnosis, improvements to existing treatments and new precision treatments and cures.

We will:

• Support the translation of scientific discoveries into clinical research by continuing to fund the Translational Research Accelerator Grants
• Launch new translational research and clinical trial funding schemes to support the development of new drugs, tests and interventions, and early-stage clinical trials
• Launch new patient-focused research funding schemes to facilitate the translation of scientific discoveries into everyday clinical care

Many children with a rare or complex condition struggle to have their diseases diagnosed and, even following a diagnosis, a cure may not be possible. Of the children who survive, current interventions can have long-lasting and permanent effects into adulthood, and many may require continued support and treatment – limiting their ability to lead an ordinary life. In addition to prioritising research that will improve the everyday experience of children living with a rare or complex disease, we want to advocate for seriously ill children and their families, ensuring their voices are amplified when discussing the issues that most affect them.

We will:

• Launch new, targeted funding schemes for projects that are likely to improve the everyday experience of children living with a rare or complex disease
• Increase the amount of funding for research that will improve children’s everyday experience and support their healing process
• Address issues of most importance and benefit to children and families at GOSH through advocacy
• Involve patients and their families in research and advocacy activities to understand what’s important to them

Making research part of everyday practice for all clinicians and stakeholders across the hospital leads to better patient outcomes. We will continue to support GOSH to build on its existing strengths to offer the best research-led care and to flourish as an intelligent research hospital driven by curiosity and innovation.

We will:

• Increase access to equipment and expertise by funding infrastructure such as core facilities, digital technology and research platforms
• Support ‘team science’, bringing experts together to address important research questions and challenges through networking events, mentoring and seminars
• Expand funding for research at the point of care, so that research outputs can quickly translate to improvements in clinical practice

To find out more, please read the full version of our 2023-2028 research strategy.

For more information, please contact our grants team, or read about our funding schemes.