Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help support research into hearing loss treatment.

The Department delivers research into hearing loss via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

This includes, for example, £2.4 million of NIHR funding for a study that will compare giving adults with severe hearing loss implants in both ears versus just one ear to inform future guidance.

As well as funding research itself, the Department invests significantly in centres of excellence and collaborations, services, and facilities to enable development and delivery of research in England. This includes the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs), which drive innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of ill-health through early phase translational research. Several of the NIHR BRCs have hearing health themes, supporting a broad range of research into hearing loss treatment, including drug discovery, gene and cell therapies, and regenerative approaches targeting inner ear damage.

The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including hearing loss.