We are passionate about the contribution that clinical research can make to children’s health and it is our belief that every child should have the opportunity to participate in, or benefit from, ground breaking research.

Our aim is to find new treatments and establish the best standards of care for childhood diseases as well as ensuring that clinical research occupies the place it deserves in the day-to-day work of the NHS.

We work in partnership with the NIHR Children’s Clinical Research Network (CRN) in Wessex and around the UK. The CRN is committed to delivering research to make children and the NHS better. The network provides infrastructure that allows high quality research to take place in the NHS so that patients can benefit from new and better treatments. It supports researchers set up clinical studies quickly and effectively, provides health professionals with research training; and works with patients to ensure their needs are at the very centre of all research activity.

Paediatric Research Centres in Wessex
If you would like to discuss a research opportunity in your local hospital, please click on the individual hospital links in the map below, or you can contact PIER network leads for research Matt Harmer or Dan Owens.. 
Our research partners
We work closely with the following research networks and institutions and to promote research in children:
To find out more visit: www.clinicalresearchinsouthampton.uhs.nhs.uk

Careers in children’s research
For more information about careers in children’s research, visit: ​
National children's research groups

Regional Journal Club
The PIER Network will host a virtual regional journal club from November 2022, on the second Wednesday of the month at 13:00 until 14:00. Each month, a different team take the lead. Following the sessions, details will be available on this page.

Calendar of sessions: 

14th December 2022 (Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, Dr J Palmer)
Freedman et al. Effect of Dilute Apple Juice and Preferred Fluids vs Electrolyte Maintenance Solution on Treatment Failure Among Children With Mild Gastroenteritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2016;315(18):1966-74.

11th January 2023 (Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, Dr R May-Miller)
Wilson et al. Is Tachycardia at Discharge From the Pediatric Emergency Department a Cause for Concern? A Nonconcurrent Cohort Study. Ann Emerg Med. 2017;70(3):268-276.e2.

8th February 2023 (Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Basingstoke, Dr A Nowak and Dr H Kaur)
Narang and Shah. Oral lactase for infantile colic: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. BMC Pediatr. 2022;3;22(1):468. 

8th March 2023 (Southampton Children's Hospital, Dr P Clarke)
Sinha et al. Intensive compared with less intensive blood pressure control to prevent adverse cardiac remodelling in children with chronic kidney disease (HOT-KID): a parallel-group, open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled trial. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2023;7(1):26-36.

April 2023 - TBC

May 2023 - TBC

June 2023 - TBC

July 2023 - TBC

August 2023 - TBC

September 2023 - No club.


​Trainees can use the framework below to help structure their presentation, if wanted. 

Regional Research Projects

We are keen to create an online facility to ‘match’ senior colleagues that have a project available or are looking for help with a project, with junior colleagues seeking to get involved with research. The submission tool below is for senior researchers/clinicians to upload basic details about their projects which we will then use to compile summaries with contact details for interested junior colleagues. 

We expect there to be mutual benefit – i.e. a commitment to help / teach the junior colleague, in exchange for them doing the project. This is also a great opportunity for those based outside of a sub-speciality to get in touch with the right teams to boost CVs and help with potential GRID applications. 

Please complete the following template for your project to go live on the PIER website.