Impact Academia

We rely on universities and sport scientists for insights that’ll change the status quo for active women, so we’re proud to now work hand in hand with some of the country’s best.

~ Dr Emma Ross, CSO @ The Well HQ

We’ve long-held the view that academia, though a massive part of the chain of progress, isn’t always well fastened to the rest of the solution.

Too often we see university departments living in silos when collaboration is key to coaxing sport science out of the lab and into the physical realm. Similarly, unis still see other unis as competition. Why? If the aim is progress then who does that help?

We of course rely on academia making the case for change, but there are many steps in bringing change to life and academics can’t be writing, researching, lecturing, PR-ing and pitching all at once. Hence we need more effective and efficient ways to get the word out and communicate progress to the people who’ll put it into play.

In short, more collaboration (and perhaps fewer egos) and academia will forge a quicker path to system change. That’s the headline – but it ain’t all bad. Some institutions are ahead of the curve and we’d love to tell you more.

Cardiff Met – ArcHer

Cardiff Met has a central bank of sport scientists — including physios, doctors, coaches and nutritionists — who service all uni sports teams. A key aim of the ArcHer project, launched last year, is to bed female health expertise into that core team.

Rather than come up with their own academic basis for the project, the uni cut a massive corner by building its foundation on The Well HQ’s Female Body Course. Doing so shaved years off the project’s timeline.

While moving through the Female Body Course, Cardiff practitioners regularly paused to methodically review, discuss and challenge themselves; to think strategically about content and the best ways to share data, merge disciplines (S&C, physio, nutrition etc) and compile an optimum expert referral network.

Set early doors, a key ArcHer goal is to reduce the time it takes to translate research into practice and work with Welsh Rugby is a great testing ground. In rugby, female-specific data — including postnatal / return-to-play insights — are taking circa one year to grab hold and for academia that’s mega. It’s normally about seven.

Northumbria

Dr Emma has a long history with the team at Northumbria University, so it’s extra brilliant to see researchers steaming ahead with great ideas and projects in female athlete performance, and in women’s health.

In fact, Dr Paul Ansdell and his Northumbria colleagues successfully applied for funding that’s specifically earmarked to investigate the intersection of physical activity and women’s health all across the lifespan. If we think about where things were even a few years ago, this is hugely significant.

Northumbria is also emerging as a great example of cross-department collaboration, where research is shared and different brains are let loose to think in solutions. Cross-pollination with data scientists, designers, engineers, medics, artists and innovators – it’s a neat trick that so many others are missing.

With collaborations picking up pace, Northumbria is fast building the blueprint for intra-uni innovation, and challenging tradition in a very healthy way.

Impact academia

Teaser alert, but the last shoutout goes to Loughborough. We’ve some very exciting projects in the works with their internationally renowned team, and we’ve been plotting with new Pro-Vice-Chancellor of sport, Jo Maher, on ways to push the boundaries of female-centric athlete support. We say it a lot but watch this space.

We’ll end on another optimistic note with a change in academia that bodes well for the future. See, universities were historically funded based on the number of papers its people and departments churned out. Basically, the system rewarded volume and not impact. We measured the work – not what the work does.

That’s shifting. Increasingly, research projects are compelled to demonstrate impact, like is this work usable on-the-ground? It is accessible? Understandable? Achievable?

This kind of scrutiny has been a missing link in the chain and it is bound to add thrust. For The Well HQ it’s a major opportunity to translate and embed academic insights and tailor them to different budgets, cultures, locations and environments. To put them in play – from grassroots to NGBs and everything in-between.

Work with us …

The Well HQ cofounders have, give or take, spent our entire careers in sport, science, medicine and academia. We love implementing new ideas and thinking into traditional systems, and we love working with seriously progressive institutions.

That said, there’s still much to do.

To discuss your institution raising its bar, working smarter, creating genuine impact and communicating well then let’s talk …

‘Cos we’re here. We’re not going anywhere. Winter sure’ll make sure of that.