We are a multi-professional research group based at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital campus of Imperial College London. Our focus is the newborn baby. We have a major interest in neonatal nutritional support and the later life impact of preterm birth. We carry out observational and interventional research, including clinical trials. An important part of our work is the use of “real-world data”, i.e. data recorded in the course of routine care, to improve the evidence-base for newborn care and enable research to be conducted more efficiently, rapidly and at lower cost than currently possible.

We developed, lead and manage the National Neonatal Research Database. This is a national resource, used in our own research and to support studies carried out by a wide range of external clinical, academic, health services and policy researchers. We conduct analyses for e.g. the Department of Health, and contribute to the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit delivered by the UK Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and national quality improvement programmes.

We collaborate with researchers in the UK and around the world. Members of our team are co-investigators on the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Centre and Discover-NOW national data hub at Imperial College London, and the Maternal and Newborn Policy Research Unit at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. We are a member of the UK Health Data Research Alliance.