Liggins research given $5m in latest HRC funding

A key Liggins research project is one of three groundbreaking research programmes from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland to receive $5 million in the Health Research Council’s latest round.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation, Professor Frank Bloomfield leads the 'Optimising nutrition for preterm babies' programme at the Liggins Institute. In the case of very pre-term babies, their only nutrition comes through feeding tubes to their veins.

The programme will design new nutrition formulations to improve outcomes. A key part of the programme aims to see if later learning and behavioural outcomes are altered by providing the smell and taste of milk in tube feeds. The goal is to save lives, reduce disability and enable pre-term babies to live healthier lives.

“The team did a fantastic job presenting a particularly compelling and impactful project, noting that there were only three $5 million awards given this year,” says Liggins Institute director Professor Justin O’Sullivan. “We look forward to seeing this research develop over the next five years.”