Loughborough University will be the base for a new government funded Sport and Exercise Medicine Centre.
Predicted to cost around £10 million, the centre will focus on three key population groups – athletes of all abilities, people with chronic illness and people at risk of chronic disease. Its work will also help to enhance the wellbeing of the general population; will treat injuries caused by exercise, as well as conditions associated with lack of exercise. It will also help people use physical activity as a means to cope with existing medical conditions, such as diabetes.
The centre will be run by a consortium of six university and hospital partners including; Loughborough University, the University of Nottingham, the University of Leicester, Nottingham University NHS Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust.
The hub is one of three nationally, which together will form the country’s first-ever National Sport and Exercise Medicine Centre of Excellence.
Professor Myra Nimmo, Dean of the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, said: “With so many elite athletes studying and training on the Loughborough campus, we have a unique living laboratory”.
It is anticipated that the East Midlands Centre will be operational by 2014-15.
