The NRC gave us a unique opportunity to design and build a service-specific rehabilitation facility that integrates clinical and academic space, providing opportunities for people to learn about, and take part in, rehabilitation research. This includes facilities which meet the specification of NIHR’s Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at QMC, including a laboratory to support clinical trials.
Learning and best practice from international rehabilitation facilities have been applied to the design of the NRC, as has the experience and learning from the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC).
Integrating the clinical and academic space and facilities within the NRC promotes innovation in rehabilitation, leading to new and improved solutions and better patient outcomes.
It also reduces the time it currently takes from development of a service improvement to introduction into clinical practice, ensuring the research truly is transformational in real time.
Furthermore, this design and approach leads to greater collaboration and learning as academics and researchers hear directly from patients and clinicians what is needed, and clinicians and patients are exposed to the latest thinking.
Our research and innovation facilities include: