The 1st of October 2017 saw the start of Phase 2 of the Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research, which is funded jointly by the Medical Research Council and Arthritis Research UK. The funding provides £2.3 million over the next five years.
The Centre continues to integrate the work of world-class researchers, clinicians and health professionals at the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham to focus upon understanding the age-related loss of musculoskeletal function and how this leads to diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
The renewal phase has three core research themes: basic mechanisms of musculoskeletal ageing, understanding the links between ageing and musculoskeletal disease, and interventions to prevent musculoskeletal ageing and disease. There will be extensive collaboration with selected partners, including the Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology at Oxford, as well as the sister centre CIMA (Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing), a collaboration between researchers and clinicians at the Universities of Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle. International partners will include the University of Copenhagen, the University of California – Davis, the University of California – Berkeley, and the University of Houston.
A large proportion of the funding the Centre has received will support 22 PhD students who will spend up to one year of their PhD in one of the Centre’s collaborating partner labs to ensure stronger collaborations emerge. The first tranche of these studentships will be open to applications within the coming weeks – please watch this space!