Estimated expenditure in 2008-09 by the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and its Policy Research Programme (PRP) on research related to stillbirth is £2.2 million.1 Further details are shown in the following table.
1 Excludes the cost of the one National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit work stream of which stillbirth research forms a part.
Funding stream Project title/research theme Principal investigator and location Total cost (£) NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme Antenatal screening for group B streptococcus colonisation—protocol development Professor Peter Brocklehurst, University of Oxford 30,590 NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme Double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of nicotine replacement therapy(NRT) in pregnancy Dr. Tim Coleman, University Hospital Nottingham 1,355,640 NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme Accuracy and cost effectiveness of rapid diagnosis of Group-B streptococcus during labour Dr. James William Gray, Birmingham Women’s Health Care NHS Foundation Trust 712,686 NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme A multicentre randomised controlled trial of an intelligent system to support decision making in the management of labour using the cardiotocogram Professor Peter Brocklehurst, University of Oxford 5,957,981 NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme Methods of prediction and prevention of pre-eclampsia—Systematic reviews of accuracy and effectiveness literature with economic modelling Professor Khalid Khan, University of Birmingham 319,054 NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme A pragmatic randomized controlled trial of physical activity as an aid to smoking cessation during pregnancy Dr. Michael Ussher, St. George’s, University of London 1,182,613 NIHR biomedical research centres Women’s health and the newborn Professor I. Jacobs, University College London 4,791,962 NIHR biomedical research centres Reproductive medicine and development Professor Nicholas Fisk, Imperial College 2,344,680 NIHR biomedical research centres Women’s health Gordon C. S. Smith, University of Cambridge 1,060,556 NIHR genetics programme Exploring the potential of family networks as a resource for genetic testing and counselling in a community with a preference for cousin marriage A. Darr, University of Bradford 231,000 PRP The Northern congenital abnormality survey: a collaborative survey of congenital anomalies in the Northern region Dr. Judith Rankin, University of Newcastle 427,174
Information in respect of Medical Research Council (MRC) expenditure in this area in 2008-09 is not yet available.
The usual practice of the Department’s NIHR and of the MRC is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. Future levels of expenditure on stillbirth research will be determined by the success of relevant bids for funding.