Sheffield Hallam University one of 26 universities that will support the country’s first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), which aims to transform national and international research and innovation for specialist rehabilitation.

The NRC, based on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate, near Loughborough, is preparing to open to its doors to its first patients, and will be supported in its ambitions by an Academic Network of 26 universities from across the country.

The NRC is a 70-bed specialist rehabilitation centre for NHS patients who have experienced life-changing illness or injury and will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH).

The Centre’s ambition is to become a world-leading national centre of excellence for rehabilitation, and to do this it will focus on three main areas:

• Specialist rehabilitation

• Research and innovation,

• Education and training

Research and innovation, and education and training, which will drive forward the national provision of rehabilitation, will be delivered through the NRC Academic Network. The initiative is led by NUH and includes Sheffield Hallam University along with 25 other universities from across the country, meaning hundreds of educators and researchers will be able to work with - and learn from - each other, to co-ordinate an overall approach to rehabilitation research. The intention is to also develop a national network for rehabilitation research, data, information and analytics.

The NRC Academic Network will operate through a collaborative model, with the NRC coordinating research and education activities across a network of leading universities and clinical partners throughout the UK. This national approach will accelerate the translation of research into practice, ensuring patients benefit from the latest advances wherever they are treated.

Professor Toni Schwarz, Dean of the College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University, said:

“We are pleased to be an academic partner of the National Rehabilitation Centre and for our research and expertise to play a role in transforming rehabilitation outcomes across the country. Our involvement underlines Sheffield Hallam’s credentials in health research including our world-leading Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre which will be at the forefront of our work with the NRC.”

Miriam Duffy, NUH’s Director for the NRC, said:

“The NRC has become NUH’s fourth site and has been nearly ten years in the making. To see it finally open is a testament to the hard work and dedication of so many people."

“We have huge ambitions for the NRC and believe it will help transform specialist rehabilitation as we currently know it, not only in the way that the rehabilitation is provided, but also through ground-breaking research and training."

“At its core, the NRC is about transforming outcomes for people who have suffered potentially life-changing injury, trauma or illness – and making sure that they can regain a quality of life equivalent to or as close as possible to their life prior to injury or illness.”

An online directory, that highlights the breadth of rehabilitation education and training offered by the NRC’s academic partners, has also been created.

The directory is aimed at healthcare professionals as well as a range of other professions that will help the NRC lead the way in rehabilitation services. These include engineers/bioengineers, computer scientists, smart materials experts, research methodologists, health economists, medical statisticians, sport scientists, personal trainers, psychologists, and many others.