Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute

Established in 2009, the Maternal and Child Health Research Institute mobilizes Stanford discoveries and expertise to improve healthier lives for expectant mothers and children. **Advancing research to solve the greatest health challenges facing pregnant women and children** From medicine to biosciences to engineering, the breadth and depth of Stanford expertise is unmatched when it comes to tackling the health problems of children and expectant mothers. Our Stanford physician-scientists are at the forefront of discoveries and are actively translating them to benefit children’s health. The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between transformational discovery and cures that can save lives. Our successes are made possible largely through the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI), built on the foundational support of visionary donors who recognized the Institute’s potential to accelerate innovative maternal and child health research across Stanford University. Using targeted funding, both institutional and philanthropic, MCHRI’s strategic goals are to: - Focus Stanford’s intellectual talent on solving the greatest health challenges facing expectant mothers and children - Increase the number of future academic leaders dedicated to these problems - Accelerate innovative research to make transformational discoveries - Enable the translation of our discoveries into action, and - Promote maternal and pediatric health and well-being, nationally and globally MCHRI creates better lives for children and mothers by increasing high-risk, high-reward research, and speeding the most promising discoveries to patients. We make smart bets, using a rigorous review process to ensure investments go to the most promising people and projects. We invest in people, especially young investigators. The vast majority of scarce NIH funding goes to late-stage research and typically to older investigators. Our brilliant young scientists – some of our boldest thinkers – have the least access to resources to test their ideas. The bulk of MCHRI funding is increasingly targeted to early-career fellows, post-docs, and faculty to provide resources of time to think and funds to take risks.