The range of clinical research in the West Midlands was celebrated at an awards ceremony in Birmingham – and it was a successful night for the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust Research and Development department.

Our team scooped two awards at the West Midlands Clinical Research Network Awards as well as being highly commended in two other categories.

Senior Research Development Facilitator Rob Klimek picked up the Wellbeing prize for his work during the pandemic sending out weekly wellbeing emails, information on topics raised by staff and signposting to sources of advice and guidance.

In addition, we received the CRN’s Operational Excellence in Research Award acknowledging the work done by UHCW across the region in the pandemic and post-pandemic period and for continually improving current research activities and processes.

The CRN acknowledged how UHCW ‘worked with the Network and partners to help us achieve our strategic objectives and ensure we can meet the ever-changing needs of our population through research, whilst managing competing demands’. 

Our Covid-19 Research Team were highly commended in the Collaboration in Research category for their multi-disciplinary, cross speciality work on urgent public health studies such as RECOVERY, SIREN, ISARIC and Valneva.

In the battle to be Chief Investigator of the Year, Professor of Gastroenterology Ramesh Arasaradnam was highly commended for leading National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) portfolio studies in gastroenterology such as RECEDE and CESCAIL and for the IONIC study combining drugs and anti-viral therapy to treat patients with long Covid.

Ceri Jones, Head of Research and Development, said: “I’m so pleased for everyone in R&D, who continue to excel in supporting research at the Trust, despite the challenges of the last few years. I’m particularly proud of the Operational Excellence Award, as this is something we always strive to achieve.”

Champion fundraiser ‘Blind Dave’ Heeley was a special guest at the awards, which are now in their seventh year.

The Network’s Clinical Director, Professor Matthew Brookes, said: “The aim of this event is to celebrate the wide range of high quality clinical research taking place right across our region, and it was great to see so many different organisations, as well as Primary Care, represented amongst the winners.

‘The standard of entries was very high again, giving the judges a real challenge. We congratulate all the winners and those who were highly commended.”