Jason Brannan, Deputy Director at the world-leading Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, gives an update on the role the centre plays for the region and Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.

Can you tell us briefly about your organisation and your role in that organisation?

Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) is a world leading centre for physical activity research and innovation, located at the heart of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park. We employ a unique model of co-location and collaboration to address global challenges relating to physical activity and human movement.

We have a mission to transform lives through innovations that help people move. This is at the heart of everything we do and reflects a belief that physical activity, in its many forms, has significant benefits for individuals, communities, the economy and wider society. Harnessing the power of human movement through our research, innovation and knowledge exchange is the space occupied by the AWRC. We exist to transform lives.

To achieve this we bring together multiple academic disciplines such as sports engineering, health, robotics, computing, sport science, psychology, design, and the arts; creating collaborations with industry, local communities, local authorities, charities and the health and technology sectors; and providing access to state-of-the-art, fully instrumented indoor and outdoor laboratories.

My role is focused on developing and ensuring the implementation of strategy for the AWRC as part of the Senior Leadership Team, as well as ensuring our values remain central, which is important in ensuring our co-located researchers feel a part of the success of the centre.

Alongside this I also lead on our work with industry, with companies from pre-revenue all the way to multi-nationals, drawing on more than 25 years in the sector.

Aside that I’m an incredibly enthusiastic adopted son of Sheffield (Bradford will always be where I’m from however), a city I love in a region I feel passionately about. As a fell runner I’m blessed that I can be in the middle of nowhere filling up my soul while running up and down hills, as easily as I can be in the centre of the city taking in the wonderful transformation taking place there.

What positive benefit does partnering with Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park bring to your organisation?

The Olympic Legacy is at the heart of AWRC and why it exists at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park. Among many other initiatives we are the research hub for the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) in Sheffield, translating knowledge from elite sport into the health sector to drive innovation in the promotion of physical activity as part of the London 2012 Olympic Legacy.

Both Sheffield Hallam University and the AWRC take our civic role as a central driver of why we do what we do, and being at the heart of Attercliffe and Darnall here at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is crucial to the success of that. Tackling widening health inequalities is one of our ‘Five Global Missions’ (see below), so we take our role in this community (and beyond) seriously, with a Researcher in Residence in Darnall for the past two years – co-funded by Westfield Health, training up ‘Community Researchers’ in the area, providing a home for youngsters to go to university with us and working alongside community organisations such as Darnall Well Being in our research to address health inequalities.

Can you share any specific success stories from the last 12 months that highlight the advantages of being part of the Park?

A programme that defines the impact both the AWRC and Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park can have is Active Together, a pioneering exercise, nutrition and wellbeing cancer support service that has helped more than 1,000 people in Sheffield prepare for and recover from cancer treatment, which recently received a £4 million funding boost to expand across South Yorkshire.

The service is designed and delivered by experts at the AWRC in partnership with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.

The service offers free, personalised fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing support to help people with cancer prepare for, respond to, and recover after treatment. It aims to save lives by increasing cancer treatment options, reducing side-effects, speeding up recovery and improving long-term health outcomes.

Since its launch in Sheffield in 2022, more than 1,000 patients have used the service and in late 2023 Yorkshire Cancer Research began providing the service from its centre in Hornbeam Park. It is now being rolled out in Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster thanks to an additional £4m funding from the charity.

The rollout will be delivered in partnership with Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.

Take a look here to see other examples of the world leading work of AWRC

The Park’s Master Plan aims to deliver whole population health and wellbeing change as well as helping to drive the economic regeneration of Sheffield and the wider city region. Do you think the Park is delivering a real Olympic Legacy and why?

The very fact that both the AWRC and the National Centre for Excellence in Food Engineering exist on the Park as Sheffield Hallam University research centres, is testimony to the success of its Olympic Legacy. Here we have a truly individual ecosystem that while already delivering on its Olympic Legacy to address population scale health challenges, the upside potential is far greater than what has already taken place. The collaboration between industry, academia, business, schools, charity and the wider sector is at the heart of this legacy and continues to grow apace. We should never separate health and wealth, they co-exist and if we are to address the social determinants of health across the region, skills, jobs and prosperity must be central to the conversation.

For further information please read our strategy.

Transforming lives through innovations that help people move