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Please install the Flash Plugin Hearing loss affects 10 million people in the UK alone. But research into hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus lags behind research into other conditions. To address this problem, we have been funding scientific research into hearing since 1999. Our research programme has been responsible for many important discoveries that are already benefiting people with hearing loss, and more that are likely to do so in the future.

In this section you can:

Search our research projects to read about the projects we are currently funding and have funded in the past.
Meet the scientists and students who are at the forefront of exciting discoveries in hearing research.
Read about our progress towards finding a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus

Your generosity makes our research programme possible and we are grateful to everyone who supports us. Find out how to help here.

We fund in four main areas to drive forward hearing research:

Understanding and preventing hearing loss

Understanding why hearing loss occurs is crucial to trying to prevent and treat it. We fund cutting-edge research to understand how our ears work, what happens when they do not and how we can prevent hearing loss.

Improving hearing

Until we can prevent hearing loss and restore hearing, devices will remain the best way to improve hearing. We fund high-impact reesearch to improve hearing aids, cochlear implants and brain stem implants.

Restoring hearing

Research aimed at restoration of neurons and sensory hair cells may one day offer the exciting opportunity to restore hearing. We fund forward-looking research in this area.

Tinnitus

Research is beginning to find the biological causes of tinnitus and this knowledge will help to develop effective treatments. We fund innovative projects that are working towards treatments.