Taking care of mothers and babies

The University of Oxford has used ‘quality-related’ (QR) research funding to underpin a large-scale, global project developing tools to monitor and evaluate the wellbeing of mothers and infants.

The INTERGROWTH-21^st project has been funded since 2008 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but the university was only able to secure the nearly $29 million investment from the charity by committing £2.9 million from QR funding.

The project works with more than 60,000 mothers and babies and health institutions in 11 geographically diverse countries, comparing foetal and newborn growth in optimal or difficult conditions, such as in areas of malaria, HIV or malnutrition.

The university used QR funding to support staff salaries, to facilitate international studentships and fellowships and to build research infrastructure. It is unlikely the project would have had the global impact it has achieved without access to those QR funds.

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