Our sport research and innovation
From optimising athlete performance to enhancing engagement with sport and exercise, innovating technology in sporting goods to revolutionising sports medicine, Loughborough University leads the way in sports research and its applications.
Covering performance, health and wellbeing and participation, our research supports knowledge advancement and informs the practice of organisations worldwide.
National Rehabilitation Centre
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 2.4 billion people around the world live with a health condition that benefits from rehabilitation. The National Rehabilitation Centre, a £100m development on the outskirts of Loughborough, will transform outcomes for people who have suffered potentially life-changing injury, trauma or illness, by fully integrating research, innovation, education and training with clinical practice.
The activity will be delivered by the NRC Clinical and Academic Partnership, led by the universities of Loughborough and Nottingham. Research in action from the centre includes projects to investigate how eye-tracking technologies can use used to measure cognitive deficits in incidences of pitch-side concussion and the therapeutic potential of heat, cold and hypoxia in rehabilitation or as part of athletes’ performance preparations.
Centre for Lifestyle Medicine and Behaviour (CLiMB)
CLiMB’s remit is to develop innovative interventions to help prevent and treat chronic diseases. The Centre’s experts work with partners worldwide as well as the general public to provide policymakers and organisations with robust research evidence on population health and wellbeing.
National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine
Loughborough University is both home to, and a key partner of, this world-class hub applying academic and clinical expertise to policies and practices to benefit the health and wellbeing of the nation.
Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport
An internationally renowned Disability Sport Research Centre focusing on sport performance, health and wellbeing, and providing sport science support to a number of GB squads, in addition to working closely with both national and international partners.
Sports Technology Institute
One of the world’s leading research groups of its kind, and the largest in the UK, the Sports Technology Institute has a global reputation for its work with blue-chip brands on the design, simulation, testing and manufacture of sporting goods.