National Institutes of Health — Investment in Pediatric Research
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute is one of the nation’s largest recipients of NIH funding made available to pediatric hospitals. Approximately 2,000 investigators and research staff working in over 821,000 square feet of laboratory space on the Hospital Campus conduct research that has led to pioneering treatments and innovative technologies that are dramatically improving health outcomes for children.
Grants totaling over $220 million annually, consisting of approximately $150 million in federal grant awards, fund this groundbreaking research and equally importantly, the researchers themselves. Advocacy efforts are crucial in maintaining this grant funding and finding new grants to help power tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
Recent research-related laws supported by CHOP
21st Century Cures Act
In December 2016, President Barack Obama signed into law the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which aims to speed discovery, development, and delivery of new medical advancements, treatments and cures.
The Act will provide the NIH with $4.8 billion in new funding to advance the Precision Medicine Initiative, bolster the NIH’s "Cancer Moonshot” to speed research, and invest in the BRAIN initiative to improve our understanding of diseases.
The Act also included significant advances in mental health through the inclusion of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. In terms of development and delivery, the Act also aims to assist the FDA in more effectively converting scientific breakthroughs into groundbreaking new FDA-approved treatments and delivering them to the right patients at the right time.
Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act
The Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Obama in 2014, ended taxpayer contributions to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund and authorized a pediatric research initiative through the National Institutes of Health. The total funding for research will amount to $126 million over 10 years.