Tommy's

Quick Stats

• Annual Giving: £2,000,000+ (research grants)
• Grant Amount: £500,000 per centre annually
• Funding Cycle: 5 years (quinquennial review)
• Number of Centres: 4 research centres
• Geographic Focus: UK-wide (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales)
• Application Method: Invitation only - no public application process
• Founded: 1992

Contact Details

Address: Nicholas House, 3 Laurence Pountney Hill, London EC4R 0BB

Website: www.tommys.org

General Enquiries: info@tommys.org

Press/Research Enquiries: pressoffice@tommys.org | 020 7398 3436

General Phone: 020 7398 3400

Email: mailbox@tommys.org

Overview

Tommy's, registered charity number 1060508 (England and Wales) and SC039280 (Scotland), was founded in 1992 by two obstetricians at St Thomas' Hospital in London, Dr Ian Fergusson and Dr Anthony Kenney, alongside their patient Lucy Nelson, who were frustrated by the lack of answers surrounding pregnancy complications and baby loss. From a campaign that began in a spare cupboard, Tommy's has grown to become the UK's largest charity researching the causes and prevention of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth. The charity invests more than £2 million annually in ground-breaking research across four university-based research centres, alongside providing trusted pregnancy information and support. In 2022, Tommy's won the Overall Award for Excellence at the Charity Awards for their “Miscarriage Matters” campaign. With total annual expenditure of approximately £10.8 million, Tommy's new 10-year strategy #TogetherWeCan, launched in May 2023, aims to halve the number of babies that die during pregnancy or birth by 2030, with a particular focus on ending inequities in maternity care.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

Tommy's operates a unique quinquennial (5-year) funding model through which they support four dedicated research centres:

Tommy's Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre (Manchester, St Mary's Hospital)

• Established in 2001
• Focus: Stillbirth prevention and placental research
• Annual funding: £500,000
• Houses over 100 clinicians and scientists

Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research

• Partnership between University of Birmingham, University of Warwick, and Imperial College London
• Latest funding: £2.5 million awarded to continue until at least 2029
• Annual funding: £500,000

Tommy's National Centre for Preterm Birth Research

• Collaboration between Imperial College London, University College London, King's College London, Queen Mary University of London, and University of Leeds
• Focus: Understanding and preventing premature birth
• Annual funding: £500,000

Tommy's National Centre for Maternity Improvement

• Focus: Implementing research findings into clinical practice nationally
• Developed the Tommy's Clinical Decision Tool
• Annual funding: £500,000

Additionally, Tommy's received more than £500,000 in funding from UKRI's Medical Research Charity Support fund for early career researchers, with funding awarded to 19 PhD students, research midwives and scientists across the four research centres.

Priority Areas

Core Research Remit:

• Miscarriage (including recurrent miscarriage)
• Premature birth
• Stillbirth
• Pregnancy complications that may lead to baby loss:
• Pre-eclampsia
• Gestational diabetes
• Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
• Chronic histiocytic intervillositis

Strategic Priorities:

• Health inequities and disparities in pregnancy outcomes
• Research involving diverse populations
• Implementation science and quality improvement
• Early career researcher development
• Integration of lived experience into research design

Cross-Cutting Themes:

• Basic science research (placental function, fetal development)
• Epidemiological studies
• Public health research
• Social research examining inequities
• Clinical trials and intervention studies
• Development of clinical decision support tools

What They Don't Fund

• Assisted conception research (e.g., IVF treatments)
• Care of premature infants after birth (neonatal care)
• Research outside the pregnancy period
• Individual project grants (they fund research centres, not individual studies)
• Unsolicited research proposals

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Governance and Leadership

Chief Executive

Kath Abrahams - Joined as CEO in 2022, bringing over 20 years of experience from the health, social care and higher education sectors. Previously Director of Engagement and Fundraising at Diabetes UK (2016-2022), with earlier director roles at King's College London, King's Health Partners, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and NSPCC.

On Tommy's research mission, Abrahams states: "Our research to save babies' lives by reducing the rates of miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth is achieving tremendous impact.“ On equity, she emphasizes: ”At Tommy's we believe that everyone should have equitable access to good maternity care, no matter who they are or where they are based."

Board of Trustees

Chair: Emma Parry - Partner at McKinsey & Company

Other Trustees include:

• Sally Tennant - Founder of Acorn Capital Advisers, with extensive investment and banking experience
• Hayley - Longest-serving Asda board member responsible for People and Corporate Affairs; awarded MBE in 2024 for services to the voluntary and charity sector
• Will - Director of Life Sciences Strategy and Policy at NHS England
• Jemma - Head of Finance at Children's Hospice South West, with over 15 years of senior financial leadership

Research Review Group

The Research Review Group oversees all funding decisions and consists of three committees:

Scientific Advisory Committee - Reviews applications and detailed reports from research centres, ensures scientific rigour. Members serve maximum 6 years and are selected from within and outside the UK for independence.

Parent Voices Committee - Brings lived experience perspective to research selection and monitoring. Ensures research questions reflect the priorities of those affected by pregnancy loss.

Implementation and Improvement Advisory Committee - Focuses on translating research into clinical practice and quality improvement.

The Research Review Group follows the Association of Medical Research Charities' (AMRC) six principles of expert review: proportionality, independence, diversity, impartiality, transparency, and rotation of experts.

How to Apply to Tommy's

How to Apply

Tommy's does not have a public application process. Research centres are selected through an invitation-only quinquennial (5-year) competitive review process. Tommy's identifies areas of research need and invites leading research institutions to submit proposals to establish or continue research centres.

When Tommy's opens a competition for a new or renewing research centre:

• Tommy's develops centre briefs and selection criteria in consultation with their Research Review Group, professional bodies, policy experts, and grassroots organizations
• Invitations are extended to prospective research institutions
• Each application must include a 5-year research plan with clear vision and route to impact
• Centres must seek the views of people with lived experience when developing their research questions

Selection Process

1. Submission: Prospective centres submit progress reports (for existing centres), 5-year research plans, and budgets
2. Initial Review: Research Review Group members receive materials in advance and score applications against published criteria
3. Presentation: Each applicant is given 1 hour to present their plans and answer questions from the selection panel
4. Scoring: Panel members re-evaluate scoring after presentations
5. Discussion: Co-Chairs of the Research Review Group lead discussion about each application and review scores
6. Recommendation: Selection panel reaches agreement and makes recommendation to Trustees
7. Final Decision: Tommy's Trustees make the final decision on which centre is selected for funding

Policy makers are invited to join the selection panel alongside the Research Review Group to ensure research aligns with national priorities.

Ongoing Monitoring

Once funded, centres undergo rigorous ongoing review:

• Annual: Each centre submits milestone-focused activity reports and annual budgets, reviewed by Research Review Group members
• 3-Year Checkpoint: Centre Directors and representatives meet face-to-face to review progress and assess implementation of quinquennial review recommendations
• 5-Year Review: Full quinquennial review process begins again, with centres presenting progress from previous 5 years and plans for next 5 years

Funding is contingent upon receipt of satisfactory external reports and evidence that milestones are being met.

Decision Timeline

The quinquennial funding cycle means major funding decisions occur every 5 years for each centre. The review and selection process itself can take several months from invitation to final trustee decision.

Application Success Factors

Given Tommy's invitation-only model, the following factors are critical for institutions that wish to be considered for research centre funding:

Institutional Excellence

• Track record of high-quality pregnancy research
• Multi-disciplinary research capacity across basic science, epidemiology, public health, and clinical research
• Strong clinical partnerships with maternity services
• Research environment that supports diverse researchers and early career development

Alignment with Tommy's Mission

Tommy's emphasizes that prospective centres must demonstrate how their research directly addresses miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth, or related pregnancy complications. Research must have clear potential to reduce baby loss.

Lived Experience Integration

Applications must show how people with lived experience of pregnancy loss have been involved in developing core research questions and portfolio of work. Tommy's Parent Voices Committee evaluates this aspect, and applications without meaningful involvement are unlikely to succeed.

Addressing Health Inequities

Tommy's new strategy prioritizes ending inequities. The charity has documented that Black women are 4 times more likely to die during pregnancy and birth than White women, and that babies of Asian ethnicity have stillbirth rates 60% higher than White babies. Successful applications demonstrate commitment to:

• Research with diverse populations
• Addressing socioeconomic disparities
• Understanding and preventing inequitable outcomes
• Working in partnership with affected communities

Route to Impact

Each application must articulate a clear vision and route to impact. Tommy's seeks research that will translate into:

• Changes in clinical practice
• New treatments or interventions
• Improved screening or diagnostic tools
• Policy changes
• Better support for families

The Tommy's Clinical Decision Tool exemplifies this approach - research that developed an algorithm to reduce racial disparities in pregnancy risk assessment, now being implemented nationally.

Collaboration and Scale

All four current centres involve partnerships between multiple institutions, suggesting Tommy's values collaborative approaches that bring together complementary expertise and reach across different geographic areas.

Quality and Transparency

Tommy's adheres to AMRC principles of expert review and expects research to meet the highest standards of scientific rigour. They emphasize transparency in their process and expect the same from research centres.

Recent Research Achievements

32% Reduction in Unexplained Stillbirths - Tommy's reduced the proportion of unexplained stillbirths in Greater Manchester by 32%, equivalent to 12 fewer babies dying every year.

8-Fold Reduction in Stillbirth for High-Risk Women - In Edinburgh, obese women attending Tommy's antenatal clinic were 8 times less likely to have a stillbirth than women receiving standard care.

Tommy's Pathway Clinical Decision Tool - Developed a clinical decision support tool that helps healthcare professionals provide personalised care to reduce stillbirth and premature birth. Research showed the tool can eliminate ethnic disparities in perinatal mortality when combined with targeted care.

Miscarriage Matters Campaign - Tommy's research series published in the Lancet highlighted that Black women have 40% higher risk of miscarriage. This research informed the Government's July 2023 Pregnancy Loss Review, which cited Tommy's Graded Model of Care.

Government Recognition - Received more than £500,000 from UKRI's Medical Research Charity Support fund, recognizing Tommy's vital role in nurturing early career researchers.

Charity Awards 2022 - Won the Overall Award for Excellence, the highest prize in the longest-running awards scheme in the charity sector.

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

• Invitation-Only Funding: Tommy's does not accept unsolicited applications. Research centres are selected through competitive quinquennial reviews when funding opportunities arise. Institutions interested in Tommy's funding should focus on building excellence in pregnancy research and establishing track record.

• Centre-Based, Not Project-Based: Tommy's funds large research centres with £500,000 annually over 5-year periods, not individual research projects. This requires institutional commitment and multi-investigator teams.

• Lived Experience is Non-Negotiable: The Parent Voices Committee plays a key role in funding decisions. Applications must demonstrate genuine, meaningful involvement of people with lived experience in developing research questions, not token consultation.

• Health Equity is Central: Tommy's new strategy prioritizes ending inequities. Research proposals that don't address disparities or include diverse populations are unlikely to align with current strategic direction.

• Implementation Matters: Tommy's values research that translates into practice. The establishment of the National Centre for Maternity Improvement signals commitment to implementation science alongside discovery research.

• Long-Term Relationship: The quinquennial model means Tommy's seeks enduring partnerships with research institutions. Building relationships over time, demonstrating consistent research quality, and engaging with Tommy's mission before funding opportunities arise is likely more valuable than preparing for a single application.

• Multi-Institutional Collaboration: All current centres involve partnerships. Single-institution applications may be less competitive than collaborative proposals that bring together complementary strengths.

Similar Funders

These funders frequently fund the same charities:

• Tearfund
• Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
• The Henry Smith Foundation
• Prostate Cancer Uk
• Barnabas Fund
• Kidney Research Uk
• World Cancer Research Fund
• Medical Research Foundation
• The A B Charitable Trust
• Breakthrough T1d Uk (juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Limited)
• The Swire Charitable Trust
• The Crucible Foundation
• Bone Cancer Research Trust
• The Rayne Foundation
• The Save The Children Fund
• The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity
• Caudwell Children
• Royal Hospital Chelsea Appeal Limited
• Oxford Hospitals Charity
• Hospices Of Hope Limited

References

1. Tommy's Official Website - Research Strategy and Funding. www.tommys.org/research/our-strategy-funding-research

1. Tommy's Official Website - Peer Review Process. www.tommys.org/research/our-strategy-funding-research/our-peer-review-process

1. Charity Commission for England and Wales - Tommy's Charity Details, Registration Number 1060508. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/1060508

1. Tommy's Official Website - Our Story. www.tommys.org/about-us/our-story

1. Tommy's Official Website - Leadership Team. www.tommys.org/about-us/our-people/senior-leadership-team

1. "Tommy's welcomes new Chief Executive Kath Abrahams." Tommy's official announcement, March 2022. www.tommys.org/about-us/news-views/tommys-welcomes-new-chief-executive-kath-abrahams

1. “Top prize at Charity Awards 2022 for Miscarriage Matters.” Tommy's, 2022. www.tommys.org/about-us/news-views/top-prize-charity-awards-2022-miscarriage-matters

1. "Government recognises Tommy's vital role in nurturing research careers with more than £500,000 in funding." Tommy's official news. www.tommys.org/about-us/news-views/government-recognises-vital-role-tommys-nurturing-research-careers-psxk-funding

1. Tommy's Official Website - Research Centres. www.tommys.org/research/research-centres

1. Tommy's Official Website - Our Impact. www.tommys.org/about-us/our-impact

1. “Launching our new strategy: growing research, improving care, ending inequities.” Tommy's, May 2023. www.tommys.org/about-us/news-views/launching-our-new-strategy-growing-research-improving-care-ending-inequities

1. “More investment in pregnancy research needed to reduce inequities.” Tommy's policy briefing. www.tommys.org/about-us/news-views/more-investment-pregnancy-research-needed-reduce-inequities

1. “Leading research to prevent miscarriage continues.” University of Birmingham, 2024. www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2024/leading-research-to-prevent-miscarriage-continues

1. “Pregnancy screening algorithm can reduce racial disparities in baby deaths, research shows.” Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. www.rcog.org.uk/news/pregnancy-screening-algorithm-can-reduce-racial-disparities-in-baby-deaths-research-shows/

1. Tommy's Official Website - Contact Information. www.tommys.org/about-us/contact-us