Chief Scientific Officer to open hearing research unit

A national research unit which brings together academics and clinicians to conduct novel research into the management of hearing loss and tinnitus officially opens this month. The National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing (NBRUH), which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research, is a partnership between The University of Nottingham, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and the Medical Research Council Institute of Hearing Research. The unit, which launched in April 2008, aims to improve the lives of those with hearing problems using training and behavioural techniques that help to manage and counter the effects of hearing loss in adults and children. Professor Sue Hill, Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health, will officially open NBRUH on Friday November 13. She will receive a tour of the NBRUH facilities — based at Ropewalk House in Nottingham city centre — with Dr Heather Fortnum, Executive Director of NBRUH, and Peter Homa, Chief Executive of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Professor Hill will also see demonstrations of research being carried out at the unit, representing NBRUH's three main research strands — hearing and learning in early childhood, auditory habilitation in hearing loss and tinnitus. An auditory learning theme underpins all the research areas.