Children’s Health Ireland Clinical Research Centre (CHI-CRC)

Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) was established in 2019 and governs and operates local paediatric services for the Greater Dublin Area as well as all national paediatric specialist services, some of which are on an all-island basis. This encompasses the existing Dublin children’s hospitals, Crumlin, Temple Street and Tallaght Hospital, as well as the new paediatric outpatients and urgent care centres at Connolly and Tallaght. Excellence in research and innovation are key strategic objectives of CHI. The new children’s hospital is planned to open in 2024 on a campus shared with St James’s Hospital, and will include a purpose built clinical research facility (CRF).

The CHI-CRC, a HRB funded clinical research centre, was established in 2021 on foot of the move of the Children’s Clinical Research Unit (CCRU) from the National Children’s Research Centre (NCRC) to CHI, and now incorporates clinical research and trials activity across all CHI sites. The CHI-CRC provides dedicated staff, infrastructure and resources to clinical teams and study sponsors to enable them conduct paediatric clinical trials, clinical investigations of medical devices and other complex research studies. The CHI-CRC is led by Paul McNally, Director of Research and Innovation at CHI. The CRC has been heavily supported over many years by the Children’s Health Foundation (CHF) – the fundraising partner of CHI.

Services provided by the CHI-CRC include:

• Study Feasibility
• Study Set-up and Coordination
• Regulatory Affairs & Ethics
• Study Budgeting
• Paediatric Research Nursing
• Trial Pharmacy
• Data Management
• Quality Assurance
• Sample Management & Biobanking
• Paediatric specific GCP Training