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The Challenge 

Cancer Research UK (CRUK), a longstanding client of Redweb, currently offers lab tours to 13,000 supporters a year in its 20 research centres and institutes. As the world’s leading cancer charity, they wanted to explore how they could use virtual reality to make their lab research accessible to a wider audience.



The Solution 

Having previously designed their homepage, we were excited to be working on an innovative project that was also a first for the charity sector. Leading the project, we set to work on the idea of a 360-degree virtual reality video. After touring CRUK’s Manchester lab, our team of digital experts mapped out ideas, sketched storyboards and sourced credible virtual reality partners to assist with the development of the video tour.

With the video’s direction and narrative firmly in place, we approached interactive developers Surround Vision and virtual reality solutions company Vitae VR to film the video tour. Working collaboratively using the latest virtual reality technology, the video came to life. Together, we were able to produce a 360-degree virtual reality video tour that offers the user an immersive viewing experience from the comfort of their homes.



The Results

Filmed at the Manchester Institute, the tour takes viewers on a journey around the state-of-the-art lab facilities and explains how the labs help researchers make breakthrough discoveries. To enhance the narrative, holograms revealing the different levels of microscopy are displayed, zooming from a piece of tissue to inside the nucleus of a single cancer cell.

Most importantly, the interactive video succeeds in not only offering viewers the chance to explore the labs, but to see how their donations can help fund life-saving research into all types of cancer.

Michael Docherty, Director of Digital at Cancer Research UK said: “We are hugely excited to be using this virtual reality to bring to life our vital research. Cancer Research UK does not receive any government funding and relies on the generosity of the public to help us bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. This virtual lab tour is another way in which we are bringing the public and our supporters closer to that life-saving research, while continuing to lead the sector in exploring and adopting innovative technology.”

Cancer Research UK’s core objective was to communicate the science that they undertake as a charity and this VR lab tour demonstrates that supporter’s donations are making a difference.  Feedback from Cancer Research UK supporters has been extremely positive, and from watching the VR lab tour they understand where their money is being used which is important to the charity as it shows people have been listening to the underlying message.