Centre for the Improvement of Health and Wellbeing

BEN CLAYTON

The Centre for the Improvement of Health and Wellbeing aims to bring together academics, industry professionals, and community members to design, carry-out, and disseminate impactful research that engages with a variety of health and wellbeing challenges. The Centre comprises three working groups for Health and Wellbeing professions, Psychology and Sport and Physical activity. Over the coming months, each group will be tasked with creating and subsequently pursuing two or three ‘threads’ of research with the aim to reach critical mass in a select number of impactful areas - areas upon which we can build a strong reputation for research and with which BNU can demonstrate significant civic and professional engagement and advancement.

The strategic goals of the Centre are to:

‐ To grow the Health and Wellbeing research reputation of the University and associated Research Excellence Framework (REF) Units of Assessment by further increasing the quantity and improving the quality of research outputs in focused areas.

‐ To build on current collaborations and networks of practitioners and users of research, and create new ones, to ensure our research remains responsive and focussed on the needs of external stakeholders.

‐ To ensure the sustainability of the research impact centre through focused recruitment, improved research culture through better internal diffusion,

Any academic staff working in the broad field of health and wellbeing can help to achieve these goals – whether as a research active member of staff (or a member of staff that wants to begin their research journey). Staff interested in contributing to the work of this impact centre can consider what types of research they find interesting and could contribute to in terms of threads that would both align to each of the above goals and that would also be impactful (i.e. have measurable benefits for the end-user). Interested staff members can also consider also how their research and scholarly work might better engage with industry and community in its design and dissemination, as well as how research can inspire and support others to further investigate in the field.

We also recognise that even if research is not a direct focus for a member of staff there is also the potential to contribute through academic and professional practice work – in turn taking advantage of the sector knowledge our staff have and of the everyday challenges where new or further research might be required. Contacts in industry, the community, or other academic institutions can be invaluable to colleagues in the Centre as research consultants, collaborators, participants, or disseminators who can help to create and measure the impact of our research.

Everyone has a part to play in the success of the University’s research impact centres, so we are asking for all staff to look out for upcoming announcements, opportunities, knowledge-sharing events and support the development of a thriving research culture in health and wellbeing at BNU.