Research - Are You Game?

Communities across the West Midlands will be able to find out more about the impact that life-changing research is making on people’s lives during Queen’s Baton Relay celebrations leading up to the Commonwealth Games.

The Clinical Research Network West Midlands (CRN WM), is working with partners to make the West Midlands the best possible place to live, work and receive healthcare and social care, where research and innovation thrive. The Network wants to make access to research more accessible, inclusive, and part of the community and sees the Games as a springboard to establish a research legacy that continues well beyond the event itself.

Anyone interested in research can come along and find out more at Games-related events in Coventry, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Tipton and Sandwell over the next few days as Network staff and researchers raise awareness of the studies and projects being carried out across the region and encourage people to take part.

The Network will kick off its focus in Coventry tomorrow (Thursday 21 July) at the Celebration Event in Millenium Place between 4pm and 6pm.

CRN WM's Clinical Director Professor Matthew Brookes said: “We are so proud that Birmingham will shortly be hosting the global spectacular that is the Commonwealth Games with all eyes focused on the West Midlands.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase all that the region has to offer as well as inspire our wonderful communities to achieve their goals and ambitions.

“Our ambition is to create a research legacy and we are thrilled to be involved in this fantastic event that could have a measurable and long-lasting impact on the health needs and inequalities in the region through the promotion and accessibility of research. We look forward to meeting with our communities at the Queen’s Baton Relay events and highlighting the impact that research is having now and will have in the future.”

Catherine Dexter, Research and Development Manager at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, added: “Our Force (Faculty of Research and Clinical Education) team will be at Walsall Arboretum’s Baton event this Saturday.

“The COVID-19 pandemic meant a lot of people started to sit up and take notice of the research happening daily to save and improve lives. But there is also a lot of work in progress across the West Midlands to help it tackle its biggest health concerns such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, liver disease and respiratory disease and the Games events give us the chance to highlight this as well as encouraging more participants.”

The CRN West Midlands (CRN WM) is the largest of 15 local Networks across England with an economically and ethnically diverse population of around 6m. Funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, the CRN WM makes sure that health and social care research occupies the place it deserves across the West Midlands locality, including hospitals and other settings such as care homes, hospices, prisons and schools

The Network is hosted by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.  Find out more about research studies you may be able to take part in at www.bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk

For further information contact Communications Lead Claire Hall on 07775 800227  or email claireanne.hall@nihr.ac.uk