In June 2022, the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC), part of Health Innovation Manchester (HInM), Cardiovascular Research Domain brought together professionals from a range of backgrounds including clinical staff, researchers, and other academics to present a series of talks focusing on Cardiovascular research across the Academic institutions in Greater Manchester. The event was both a demonstration of this ongoing research activity and an opportunity to develop novel research ideas and collaborations between teams and individuals who had not had an opportunity to work together previously.

The event was introduced by the HInM and MAHSC leads before moving onto a series of keynote presentations and rapid-fire, one-slide project presentations from the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Salford, Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, exploring a range of topics such as: Assessing and predicting the incidence of carotid artery disease, exploring the immune features of post-stroke cognitive decline.

Research staff who have received small-grant funding from the domain to deliver CVD research attended the event to present on: Identifying biomarkers for systemic sclerosis, the effects of e-cigarettes as a prescribed alternative to smoking via the NHS. And our Rapid-fire presentation topics included: Using data to predict dynamic system models in cardiovascular health and disease, risk screening for atherothrombosis, Mechanisms of Cardioprotection in ANCA-Associated Glomerulonephritis, restoring vascular function, and therapeutic opportunities for vascular disease.

Presentations focused on the key research focus of each organisation and were followed by a group discussion session. More than 55 attendees came together for our first fully in-person MAHSC collaboration event since the pandemic, and led discussions on priority research areas, creating new ideas to meet unmet needs, and collaborating across organisations to build on research. From these discussions we are now looking to provide supportive funding to any newly developed research collaborations in the form of small-grant awards in 2022.