Royal Honour for baby and parent sleep research

Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have presented the UK's highest academic honour to Durham University for research that has helped to shape the way babies sleep and how parents care for them at night time. At the awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace, similar to an investiture, the Royal couple awarded The Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education to the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge, and Professor Helen Ball, Director of the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab , with the University's Chancellor, Sir Thomas Allen, in attendance. Caring for babies The Lab's work with more than 5,000 parents and babies during the last 20 years has substantially increased parents' understanding of babies' sleep, how best to care for babies during the night, and how best to keep them safe when asleep. The prize has been awarded to Durham University for 'leading influential research on parent-infant sleep with a widely-used public information service'. The awards, part of the national honours system in the UK, are approved by The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister from recommendations made by the Royal Anniversary Trust's Awards Council. From research to practice Five PhD students who have worked on Sleep Lab research projects were also at the Palace for the ceremony, at which Prince Charles presented a medal to Professor Corbridge before the Duchess presented a scroll, representing the Certificate, to Professor Ball. Professor Ball, of the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, said: "The research we have published and shared has influenced how parents and health professionals think about baby sleep.