Working in partnership

Our aim is to maximise the difference that research can make in the lives of people with asthma. Working with a wide variety of organisations helps us turn that aim into a reality.

We’re in the privileged position of being in contact with thousands of people with asthma from all over the UK, all of whom have valuable insight into what it means to have asthma.

Through this contact, we can represent the views, experiences and priorities of people with asthma and make sure that, like us, other organisations are focusing on the problems that people with asthma really care about.

In addition, by sharing resources and ideas with other organisations we can raise the profile of asthma and make asthma research more of a priority for funding.

Our partnerships range from other charities to the UK government.

For example, in order to understand the impact of severe asthma and improve the care people receive, we are working with the Severe Asthma National Network and a Europe-wide consortium called U-BIOPRED, which aims to overcome the problems associated with developing new treatments for severe asthma.

We also collaborate with other research funders, including the Medical Research Council (a major source of government funding) and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research. By pooling our resources we can support more cutting-edge asthma research and provide funding to develop the careers of young asthma researchers.

Our work with the UK Respiratory Research Collaborative also helps us to promote the need for world class research into respiratory conditions.

In addition, we work with other charities to ensure that we are not duplicating one another’s research. We learn from each other in terms of what works and what doesn’t work, and we support volunteers who are interested in getting involved in research.

As someone affected by asthma, I know it’s vital that we do everything we can to make sure that our research truly benefits people with asthma.

Research is an incredibly complicated activity that requires input from universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, patient organisations and research funders. Therefore it’s essential that we all work together. That way we can accelerate progress and take full advantage of the benefits research can bring, including better asthma management, new and improved treatments and hopefully a way of preventing asthma in the future.

We have already seen some of the benefits that this partnership approach can bring.

For example, through a joint project with Professor Rob Horne at The School of Pharmacy in London and Education for Health, we have recently obtained a wealth of new information that could help healthcare professionals provide better support to people with asthma who have been prescribed steroid-based medicines.

Our priority-setting partnership with the James Lind Alliance also highlighted a number of important research questions which people with asthma and healthcare professionals believe need to be answered. Some of these questions are being explored by major funding agencies, and the results are likely to have a significant impact on the treatments and care that people with asthma receive.