Durham University
Helping Durham University researchers secure £250k of funding to launch a national weight-inclusive healthcare training programme.
Learn Fox | E-learning, Brand & Commercialisation
Project Snapshot
Challenge:
Over 20 years of research on weight discrimination in healthcare had no pathway to practice — clinicians lacked training, and the research had no commercial vehicle
Solution:
Built a complete training ecosystem: brand identity, website, animation, filmed patient stories, and e-learning platform, using our Curriculum Sprint to shape the product and commercial positioning
Results:
£250k+ NIHR funding, commercial spinout launched, national rollout in progress
Problem
Up to 88% of people classified as higher-weight report experiencing discrimination in healthcare settings. This isn’t just a patient experience issue — it leads to misdiagnosis, avoidance of healthcare services, and measurably worse health outcomes. The Eqweighty team at Durham University had over two decades of research documenting this problem and evidence for what works.
But evidence alone wasn’t enough. To change practice, they needed training that healthcare professionals would actually engage with, a brand that commissioners and institutions would trust, and a commercial model that could sustain beyond initial research funding. They didn’t need a single output — they needed a system.
Solution
Our Curriculum Sprint went beyond learning design. We worked with the Eqweighty founders to define target audiences across healthcare, public health, and corporate sectors, map the commercial landscape, and shape the overall training offer and pricing model. This was product development as much as content development — we helped the team understand what a scalable training business looks like and designed the ecosystem to support it.
Weight discrimination is a subject where language matters enormously. We developed messaging across the website, training content, and sales materials that balances clinical evidence with the lived experience of people with higher weight. The focus was on language that engages healthcare professionals without triggering defensiveness; because the training only works if clinicians feel invited into reflection, not accused.
We built Eqweighty’s brand identity from scratch, designed to signal both academic credibility and practical accessibility. This included pioneering 3D infographics to visualise how weight discrimination is embedded in healthcare environments, filming patient stories with actors telling real clinical narratives, and creating animations that explain complex concepts without being reductive. Every visual output was designed to make weight discrimination visible as a systemic issue rather than an individual failing.
We built a scalable website to host the training offer, designed e-learning modules structured around behaviour change, and supported the team to launch Eqweighty as a commercial spinout. The platform supports learner engagement tracking, feedback collection, and evaluation, giving the team the data they need for continuous improvement and funder reporting.
Results
Eqweighty secured UKRI funding and launched as a commercial spinout — a direct result of having a credible brand, a working platform, and a clearly articulated training offer that funders could see and assess.
- £250k+ UKRI Proof of Concept funding secured to scale the training programme, positioned as a leader in weight-inclusive healthcare training,
- Commercial spinout launched as a consultancy and training offer
- Brand, website, animation, and e-learning platform built as a scalable ecosystem
Why this matters for your work
If your research has commercial potential but you’re not sure how to get from evidence to funded product, funders and commissioners need to see something tangible beyond just a proposal. A working brand, platform, and training experience demonstrates viability in a way that a grant application alone cannot.
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