RACE awarded EULAR excellence status
Published: 25 November 2021
RACE is proud to announce that all four of its partner University Rheumatology units – in Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle and Oxford – have been awarded five year EULAR Centre of Excellence status until either 2025 or 2026.
RACE is proud to announce that all four of its partner University Rheumatology units – in Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle and Oxford – have been awarded five-year EULAR Centre of Excellence status until either 2025 or 2026.
EULAR (European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology) represents people with arthritis/rheumatism as well as health professionals in rheumatology and scientific societies across Europe. EULAR Centres of Excellence are considered the top research centres in European rheumatology, and the awards mark the very highest level of excellence in research in Europe.
These four successful EULAR awards reflect extensive collaboration across each of the RACE research institutions, alongside partners and collaborators in the NHS and beyond.
Professor McInnes, University of Glasgow Vice Principal and Head of the College of MVLS, said: “I am delighted and incredibly proud that all four RACE partners have once again been named as EULAR Centres of Excellence.
"These awards highlight the tremendous work being carried out in RACE institutions across the UK, and are testament to the outstanding calibre of research they continue to produce.
“Collaboration, among the RACE centres, as well as with other EULAR Centres of Excellence across mainland Europe, remains key to our objective to deliver world-changing research that will have real impact for patients and healthcare services, and we look forward to continuing that work once again as EULAR Centres of Excellence.”
Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the body’s immune system attacks itself. Although drug treatments have considerably improved in the past 20 years, they are not effective in all people; and even with the best available drugs, many people’s disease responds only partially, and sometimes not at all.
To address these challenges RACE aims to understand why inflammation causes arthritis in the first place, and why the biological processes that cause arthritis vary between different people. RACE also wants to understand why some people respond to treatments only partially, or not at all.
Dr Neha Issar-Brown, Director of Research at Versus Arthritis, said “We funded the RACE centre to harness the power of multi-disciplinary collaboration which deepens our understanding and increases the pace of progress in finding new treatments for inflammatory arthritis. We’re incredibly proud that this EULAR award acknowledges the impact, importance and commitment of the work by our researchers and centre staff.”
Annamaria Iagnocco, President of EULAR, said: “EULAR congratulates the RACE universities and sees them as a role model for other universities to promote and endorse excellence in rheumatology.”
RACE currently provides a globally-recognised national focus for scientific research in the field of rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis and has made many important developments and translational insights in the fight against the disease.
Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk orelizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 6557 or 0141 330 4831
First published: 25 November 2021
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