Living Laboratory

17/09/2026

🌿 What a lovely Tuesday with Linthouse Community Shop! 🌿

On Tuesday, we had the absolute pleasure of joining the wonderful team at Linthouse Community Shop for their Stretch & Stroll, followed by a visit to the Health Innovation Hub for a warm cuppa ☕️ and a tour of the building.

It was fantastic to welcome such an amazing group of Linthouse residents into the Hub. There was so much enthusiasm and curiosity about the work happening here, hearing about some of the exciting opportunities coming up, and finding out how they can get involved.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a community visit without plenty of great laughs, chat and engagement! 🥰

It was also lovely to see everyone making use of our café space and enjoying the Hub in their own way. Creating spaces where local people feel welcome, comfortable and connected is such an important part of what we are trying to achieve.

I have to say, Linthouse Community Shop does some absolutely amazing work for local people and the community, and it was a real pleasure to spend time with you all.

💚 Thank you so much for letting us join your Stretch & Stroll, for taking the time to come along to the Health Innovation Hub, and for listening to our story.

We loved having you with us and look forward to continuing to build those connections within our local community! 🌿☕️

15/09/2026

We’re super excited to see more of these wonderful walks, visiting some of our partners and the Health Innovation Hub, while celebrating the amazing Mosaic Panels created and developed in partnership with Impact Arts, their amazing artist Charlotte and our community. 🎨

We’re delighted to have now shared this artwork across The Pearce Institute and Glasgow Life Libraries – Elderpark Library, with five panels in each location, making the artwork accessible for the wider community to enjoy.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped bring these beautiful pieces to life, we can’t wait to see more people discovering them! 🌟

There is also a chance to see the beautiful Tapestry created by the women of Gilded Lily and their development officer's the Heather's that brought all of this together and now be displayed in the Health Innovation Hub.

We look forward to seeing you all and welcoming you on this amazing journey.

Living Lab on Foot is back with three more walks in Govan!

We are delighted to continue our Living Lab on Foot project with another three free community walks this autumn.

Join us as we walk through Govan, explore different aspects of health and wellbeing, hear local stories and, most importantly, bring people together.

🔴 Thursday 24 September
🔴 Thursday 15 October
🔴 Thursday 5 November

🕥 All walks start at 10:30am
📍 Meet us at The Pearce Institute

After each guided walk, we’ll continue the conversation over tea, coffee and refreshments, with a relaxed session exploring health, community and some of the work happening locally.

And this time, there’s no need to book! Simply turn up at the Pearce Institute and join us.

Living Lab on Foot is part of our Meet Me in Govan project, delivered in partnership with the University of Glasgow, the Living Laboratory team and the Health Innovation Hub.

🚶 Walk. 💬 Learn. 🤝 Connect.
...and no matter if you have walked with us before or this will be your first time, everyone is welcome. We woud love to see you there!

The Pearce Institute
Invisible Cities
acumfaegovan
ACVC HUB
Glasgow Riverside Innovation District
Govan Out and About
Living Laboratory
University of Glasgow
All About Govan
Oakminster Healthcare Ltd
Florence House
Elderpark Housing Association Limited
Govan Housing Association
Linthouse Community Shop

15/09/2026

A big thank you to our community!

It has been so lovely to see the Health Innovation Hub and our community café space getting some fantastic coverage recently, and we wanted to take the opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped make the space what it is becoming! 🌟

Since opening earlier this year, the café space at the Health Innovation Hub, 101 Holmfauld Road, has become so much more than somewhere to grab a coffee or something to eat.

It is becoming a place where people meet, conversations happen, relationships grow and community organisations can come together. 💜

We have now welcomed lots of local organisations and community groups into the Hub for meetings, activities, tours, walking groups and events, and it has been fantastic to see people coming through the doors and making use of the space.

One of our recent highlights has been welcoming the wonderful Meet me in Govan walking groups with Invisible Cities. 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️

The groups have been exploring Govan before making their way to the Health Innovation Hub, where they have been able to enjoy the café, have some refreshments and continue their conversations. It has been brilliant to see the Hub becoming part of these community activities and to see the café being used as a place for people to come together.

A massive thank you to Proper Foods Gourmet for creating such a welcoming café space and to Kadans Science Partner for supporting the vision of making the Hub a welcoming place for our local community.

And, of course, the biggest thank you goes to all of our wonderful community members and organisations who have come through the doors, brought their groups, shared their ideas, joined activities, had a cuppa, asked questions and helped us build those all-important relationships. 🥰

From the beginning, our hope has been that the Health Innovation Hub would be more than just a building where research and innovation takes place.

We want it to be somewhere that creates opportunities for new relationships, conversations, learning and collaborations between our communities, researchers, businesses and organisations.

Seeing this beginning to happen is really special. 🌱💜

We are delighted that this work has been recognised in some recent articles:

Scotland Gazette Online https://www.scotlandgazette.com/business/glasgow-health-innovation-hub-community-connections-cafe/
Glasgow Time Online https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/26527474.govan-health-innovation-hub-bringing-community-together/
Yahoo News Online
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/govan-health-innovation-hub-bringing-102048259.html
Business Mondays Online https://businessmondays.co.uk/health-innovation-hub-strengthens-community-connections/

It is wonderful to see the Health Innovation Hub, Govan and our community connections being recognised, but for us, the real success is seeing people using the space, enjoying it and helping us shape what it can become.

And this is only the beginning!

We can't wait to see what other groups, organisations and opportunities come through our doors next. 🌟

Please keep sharing what we're doing and help us spread the word!

12/09/2026

Yesterday the Living Lab had the pleasure of visiting TEA in the POT - Women's Support Service and their amazing women. Spending time catching up, linking in and looking at ways we can support one another.

Such an amazing, warm, welcoming group with so many services available.

We also visited the Men's Shed Govan, Sunny Govan Community Radio and a catch up with the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District team.

Thank you for a great but very busy day.

09/09/2026

NEW COMMUNITY DROP-IN SESSIONS AT THE HEALTH INNOVATION HUB

We are delighted to be bringing some fantastic regular drop-in sessions to the Health Innovation Hub at 101 Holmfauld Road, Linthouse, Glasgow and we would love for you to come along!

These sessions are completely free, informal, friendly and open to the local community. There is no need to book an appointment, just drop in, and find out what support and opportunities are available. ☕😊

🤝 First Tuesday of every month

📅 Starting Tuesday 6th October
⏰ 10am – 1pm
📍 Ground Floor Café Area – Health Innovation Hub

We will have Alliance Scotland and Link Workers from local GP surgeries in Govan, Ibrox and Linthouse joining us.

They will be there to offer support, information, advice and resources, and can help connect you with services and opportunities that may be useful to you and your family.

💼 Second Wednesday of every month

📅 Starting Wednesday 14th October
⏰ 10am – 1pm
📍 Ground Floor Café Area – Health Innovation Hub

Jobs And Business Glasgow will be hosting a regular drop-in session to support local people with:

💼 Finding employment
📚 Accessing training
🤝 Finding volunteering opportunities
📝 CV advice
🎤 Interview advice and preparation
💬 General employment and training support

Whether you're looking for your next opportunity, thinking about getting back into work, interested in training or volunteering, or simply want some advice, come along and have a chat.

🌟 And there's more to come!

We are continuing to work with organisations and community partners to bring more opportunities, support and activities into the Health Innovation Hub, so keep an eye out for future updates.

Please share this post far and wide with your friends, family, neighbours and community groups. The more people who know about these opportunities, the better! 💜

We look forward to welcoming you into the Hub, have a chat, and hopefully connecting you with something that could make a real difference.

📍 Health Innovation Hub
101 Holmfauld Road, Govan
☕ Ground Floor Café Area

Everyone welcome!

The Glasgow Barons, Gilded Lily, TEA in the POT - Women's Support Service, Linthouse Community Shop, Elderpark Housing Association Limited, Govan Housing Association, Govan Community Project, Sunny Govan Community Radio, Charlotte CraftCafe, ACVC HUB, The Rock Trust,

08/09/2026

🎉 WE HAVE A WINNER! 🎉

We asked you to cast your vote and help us decide the name of our new Policy and Codes of Practice for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in Research — and you certainly did!

We had a fabulous 144 votes! 🙌

And with 84 votes, the winning name is…

🏆 Research Shaped Together
✨ A Scottish Approach to Health Research

And that’s it, this is now the official name of our new Policy and Codes of Practice!

What makes this even more special is that the name was created by our community working group and then put to the wider community to have their say.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to vote, share their thoughts and be part of this process.

This is exactly what meaningful Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement should be about — working together, listening to different voices and shaping research together.

We’re so excited to see Research Shaped Together take its next steps! We will be publishing these documents at the end of the month, so keep posted for details.

The Glasgow Barons TEA in the POT - Women's Support Service Gilded Lily Men's Shed Govan Govan Community Project Sunny Govan Community Radio Charlotte CraftCafe
Elderpark Housing Association Limited, Govan Housing Association, Linthouse Community Shop and Linthouse Housing Association

04/09/2026

What an amazing day of community conversations!

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of taking 12 of our wonderful community members along to the Byres Community Hub to meet with Gerry Graham, Dean of Research and Innovation, and Ruth McLaughlin, Director of the Living Laboratory at the University of Glasgow.

The purpose of this first meeting was to learn more about the research taking place within the University and, most importantly, to hear directly from our community about what they would like to see when they visit the University in the future.

Who would they like to meet?
What would they like to hear about?
What would they like to see?
What would make a visit interesting, welcoming and meaningful for them and their communities?

And honestly… what a conversation we had! 😍

The enthusiasm within the group and the genuine interest in the topic was amazing. The conversations just flowed, with absolutely no need to worry about awkward silences! 😂 Questions were being asked, answered and bounced back and forth, with more questions, ideas and discussions coming from the group.

We had two hours together, but I think we could probably have done with another two!

We unfortunately didn't manage to get many pictures because, as usual, we were too busy rushing about making sure everything was going smoothly, and by the time I remembered, the moment had passed! 😂 But actually, that's probably a good thing because it meant everyone was so involved in the conversation.

What an amazing group of people we had there. 💜

These 12 community members came along as ambassadors for the rest of their PPIE working groups, bringing with them the thoughts, interests and ideas of the wider groups they represent.

This was just the beginning. We will soon be bringing more of our community groups along to the University, giving them opportunities to meet researchers, see the facilities, learn about the research taking place and, hopefully, feel that the University is a place where their voices and experiences are genuinely valued.

For us, this is about building relationships, creating trust and opening doors, not just asking our community to be involved in research, but making sure we take the time to listen, learn from one another and build those relationships first.

A huge thank you to Gerry and Ruth for taking the time to meet with us, listen to our community and help us start this really exciting journey.

And, of course, a massive THANK YOU to our wonderful community members for bringing so much enthusiasm, curiosity, honesty and warmth to the day. 🥰

We can't wait to share more updates as this develops.

This really does feel like the beginning of something very special. 🌟💜

Gilded Lily, TEA in the POT - Women's Support Service, Men's Shed Govan, Govan Community Project

04/09/2026

Building connections in our communities

On Tuesday, we had the pleasure of spending some time in Ferguslie Park,Paisley and visiting the Tannahill Centre

We had a lovely meeting with the volunteer co-odinator Terry McTernan , who is currently studying at the University of Glasgow, and had some great conversations about ways we can come together, connect and create opportunities for collaboration.

We’re also looking forward to spending more time with community partners and members, getting to know the different groups, the work they do and the amazing support they provide within their communities.

But first things first… we need to get Terry along to the Health Innovation Hub for a tour, to meet our team and some of our fantastic clinicians! 😊

We’re really looking forward to seeing how these connections develop and exploring new opportunities for collaboration, networking and sharing knowledge.

A huge thank you to Terry and everyone at the new Tannahill Centre for welcoming us and for taking the time to connect with us.

We believe that some of the best partnerships start with a simple conversation, getting to know each other and finding out what we can achieve together.

Here’s to more conversations, connections and collaborations across our communities! 🤝💛

28/08/2026

💜 Building connections, sharing knowledge and creating partnerships 💜

We had the pleasure of welcoming The Rock Trust, who work to prevent youth homelessness, and ACVC HUB Veteran Support Services to the Health Innovation Hub for a tour of the building.

It was lovely to have the opportunity to share some of the amazing developments and work happening within the Hub, but also to hear about the fantastic services they provide and the incredible support they offer to members of our community.

It was honestly so inspiring to hear about the hard work being carried out by both organisations and the difference they are making every single day.

For me, these visits are about so much more than just showing people around the Health Innovation Hub. They are about getting to know each other, sharing what we do, understanding the amazing work already happening within our communities and looking at how we can connect. 🤝

We had some really positive conversations about ways we could link in and create some exciting and creative opportunities to work together, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how these connections develop. 💜

A huge thank you to Rock Trust and AVCV Hub for joining us, for sharing your stories and for the amazing work you do.

And next time, I’ll be coming to you! 😊

I’m really looking forward to seeing where these new connections take us. Sometimes it’s simply about opening the door, having a conversation and seeing what can happen when we connect. 💜

Here’s to more conversations, more connections and hopefully lots more opportunities to work together! 🤝✨