New consortium will train experts in neonatal brain injury care

Posted on: 01 June 2018

Researchers from Trinity will lead the establishment of a neonatal brain injury consortium in Ireland after winning a Health Research Board (HRB) Collaborative Doctoral Award worth €1.4 million to support the consortium’s creation and development. The new consortium will be known as the HRB Neonatal Encephalopathy PhD Training Network (HRB NEPTuNE).

Neonatal brain injury has serious consequences for those affected, including problems with development and cerebral palsy. Cooling or hypothermia therapy is the only treatment available, but around half of all babies still have brain injury after such treatment.

Ireland is at the forefront of research in neonatal brain injury and has collaborative potential to be an international leader in this area. Researchers in this consortium have internationally recognised multidisciplinary expertise in neonatology, paediatrics, neurodevelopment, family-centred care, clinical trials and methodology, pharmacology, epidemiology, biostatistics, translational research and neuroimaging in neonatal brain injury.

HRB NEPTuNE will train PhD students in multidisciplinary research projects in premier research centres in Trinity, University College Cork and NUI Galway. Students will have a holistic overview involving the entire translational research paradigm from basic science research, translational clinical research and clinical trials to epidemiology and population health, while building in-depth expertise in their chosen areas.

Professor of Paediatrics in Trinity, Eleanor Molloy, will lead the development of the consortium. The funding from the award will support the training of five PhD candidates over the next five years.

Professor Molloy said: “The research group will study the best methods to care for babies and their families and create detailed clinical guidelines. We will train PhD candidates in the newest and most effective methods to monitor and manage babies with neonatal brain injury, and these candidates will become experts in leading the research and care of these infants in the future, as well as in driving related innovations in this area.”

Professor Molloy’s award was one of four announced by the HRB to support new researcher training programmes with a strong focus on patient care. The other programmes are in the areas of youth mental health, elderly care and multimorbidity in primary care settings. The training programmes will equip health researchers with an extensive skill set that will allow them to go on and integrate research with patient care in their specialist clinical areas.

The Collaborative Doctoral Awards scheme was developed as part of the Health Research Careers portfolio, which aims to provide a coordinated approach to train and support health-related researchers and health professionals at every career stage.

More information about NEPTuNE can be found here.