The UP/SAMRC Research Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Health Care Strategies aims to create a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, inter-professional research and learning network aligned with the achievement of the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) 2, 3 and 4. The centre wants to achieve the fore mentioned SDGs by:

• Continue existing collaboration with national and international partners
• Develop new partnerships to broaden current research areas
• Seek funding for programmes and projects with potential
• Nurture young and upcoming researchers by providing development opportunities and support
• Generate scientific publications, resource materials and policy documents to support academic learning, service delivery, policy-making and public health literacy

Vision

The vision of the centre is to be a leader in the field of perinatal healthcare by seeking saleable and sustainable solutions for preventing maternal, fetal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality in the primary and secondary levels of care and improving neurodevelopment in children to achieve a “quadruple return on investment.”

Mission

To build on previous achievements of the SA MRC Research Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Health Care Strategies such as the already established quality of care review audits into maternal, perinatal and child deaths (e.g. PPIP, Child PIP, MaMMAS). The focus will be on exploring and implementing innovative practices and processes through:

• systematic and realist reviews to determine effective practices,
• cutting-edge clinical research,
• frontline implementation research, and
• research on effective ways to achieve sustainability of interventions

in order to contribute to meaningful change in health outcomes for ordinary people by reducing maternal, fetal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality.