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NIHR CRN Greater Manchester’s Evening of Excellence 2021

A wide range of inspiring nominees were celebrated during a special evening to acknowledge the staff behind the incredible health and care research that has taken place in Greater Manchester during the pandemic.

NIHR CRN Greater Manchester’s Evening of Excellence 2021, sponsored by Syneos Health, was shown online on Thursday 18 November 2021.

The entire research community, as well as friends and family, were invited to watch on YouTube Premieres and the ceremony can now be watched on-demand. 

Thank you to everyone who watched the ceremony and interacted on social media using the hashtag #GMEOE

Following a judging process for the event, a host of outstanding individual and team contributions were selected to feature in the pre-recorded ceremony.

As communicated when nominations opened in August, winners were not chosen for the Evening of Excellence. Instead, each successful nominee across the 11 categories shared the spotlight in equal measure.

Each team and individual selected to feature in the Evening of Excellence received a special hamper, courtesy of our sponsor Syneos Health, to be enjoyed on 18 November, the night of the ceremony. 

The Evening of Excellence was designed to recognise the valuable achievements made in the delivery of COVID-19 and non-COVID research during the period March 2020 to August 2021. Nominations were open to individuals and teams in research delivery across Greater Manchester, East Cheshire and East Lancashire.

In addition to celebrating the contributions of our selected nominees, the evening featured insights, reflections and messages of thanks from a number of special guests from the Greater Manchester and national research system. 

These were 

  • Dr Louise Wood CBE, the Director of Science, Research and Evidence at the Department of Health and Social Care and Deputy CEO of the NIHR
  • Karen McIntyre, Executive Director at Syneos Health
  • Sir Richard Leese, Chairman of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership
  • Professor Jane Eddleston, Chair of Manchester Academic Health Science Centre chair and Group Joint Medical Director at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
  • Roger Spencer, Chief Executive of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Chairman of the NIHR CRN Greater Manchester Partnership Board
  • Divya Chadha Manek OBE, outgoing NIHR CRN Director of Business Development and Marketing

Sarah Fallon, Chief Operating Officer at NIHR CRN Greater Manchester, said: “We are delighted to say that we’ve had an enormous response to our Evening of Excellence, with superb submissions from across our Greater Manchester, East Cheshire and East Lancashire research community. It has given our judges great pleasure to watch the videos - each of which tells its own story of how our network has achieved so much. Congratulations to everyone who's been selected and thank you very much to all staff who took the time to nominate someone."