A new initiative to address the UK’s worsening respiratory health crisis launched at the House of Commons on 24 February. The Centre for Applied Respiratory Research, Innovation and Impact (CARRii) is a UK-wide network with leadership based at the University of Oxford and Queen Mary University of London and a strong research-base from within Usher. It brings together experts from healthcare, industry, policy and patient advocacy groups to tackle the UK’s respiratory health crisis. Building on the success of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR), many of CARRii’s researchers draw on expertise from that ground-breaking collaboration. CARRii has bold aims to reduce hospital admissions for asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and respiratory infections by 20%, while addressing health inequalities in respiratory care, over the next decade.The launch event featured keynote speeches from leading public health figures, including Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, and Professor Lord Lionel Tarassenko, a global authority on AI and biomedical engineering. Funders of research need to put greater emphasis on impact. Research alone isn’t enough - we must prioritise real-world impact that changes patients’ lives. The UK has some of the world’s finest researchers, but without a stronger focus on implementation and adoption, we won’t achieve the urgent changes needed to ease the relentless pressures on the NHS. CARRii is here to bridge that gap and drive lasting solutions. Monica Fletcher OBE Chief Executive of CARRii There’s an urgent need to prevent our NHS from predictably falling over every winter due to the surge in respiratory infections. CARRii brings together the UK’s foremost respiratory scientists, alongside patients and industry, to find and deliver solutions that will ease these pressures and tackle long-standing health inequalities. Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh University of Oxford, Co-Director of CARRii Today’s launch demonstrated that we not only have the breadth of expertise and experience but also the passion and commitment to deliver on our missions of cutting NHS winter pressures and reducing respiratory health inequalities. We look forward to more people from science, industry, and technology joining us to achieve these aims. Professor Chris Griffiths Queen Mary University of London, Co-Director of CARRii Further informationCentre for Applied Respiratory Research Innovation and Impact (CARRii) | University of OxfordAsthma UK Centre for Applied Research | Usher Institute Publication date 26 Feb, 2025
