NIHR Research Professors
Our Research Professorships fund future leaders to promote effective translation of research.
Each professorship is a 5-year award. It enables outstanding academics to work at a professorial level on health and care research.
Find out about our previous Research Professors' work
NIHR Research Professorships, Round 14, 2024
For our current round of Research Professorships, we:
- launched on 20 September 2023
- closed on 6 December 2023
- received 37 applications
- shortlisted in March 2024
- invited 14 applicants to interview on 6 and 7 June 2024
Find out about our current Research Professors' work
Professor Andrew Clegg's research summary: Maximising independence for older people across community and hospital settings
Maximising independence is a top priority for older people and the NHS. The problem is that we do not know which older people are most likely to benefit from community and hospital treatments to maximise their independence. Finding out would transform NHS care for older people.
In this Research Professorship, I will gather data from individual community-based intervention trials designed to maximise independence for older people to enable detailed analysis of which older people can benefit most, based on characteristics such as frailty, mental or physical health conditions, and socioeconomic factors. I will then model these findings in large, routine datasets to investigate what would happen if we provided better-targeted community interventions as part of routine NHS care, including economic impact. I will address evidence gaps through new intervention development, and extend plans into secondary care to study how we might best target inpatient falls prevention to sustain independence for older people.
Professor Emma Crosbie's research summary: PREDICT-EC: A risk prediction tool to streamline diagnostic pathways for suspected endometrial cancer
Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer in the UK with nearly 10,000 new diagnoses every year. Postmenopausal bleeding (PMB) is the red flag symptom for endometrial cancer, triggering urgent referral on the suspected cancer pathway for a series of invasive, uncomfortable, anxiety-provoking, often painful and mostly unnecessary tests since only 3-5% of women with PMB have endometrial cancer. An accurate triage tool to select high risk women for invasive tests whilst safely reassuring low risk women would improve patient care. It would save thousands of women every year from the harms of unnecessary tests, allowing resources to be redirected towards more effective pathways.
I have developed a triage tool that uses routinely collected clinical data and a novel biomarker to predict risk of endometrial cancer in women with PMB. If accurate on prospective validation, this tool would reduce the number of women needing invasive diagnostics by half without missing any cancers.
The aim of my NIHR professorship is to establish whether my endometrial cancer triage tool is accurate, works for everyone, what the cost implications are, what women and doctors think about it and to develop a clinician-facing online digital calculator for use in the NHS.
Dr Laura Coates' research summary: Novel digital trials for inflammatory arthritis optimising management within the National Health Service
Psoriatic arthritis is a type of inflammatory arthritis that develops in around one-third of people with the skin condition psoriasis, causing swollen and painful joints. At present, we cannot predict which of the 2.1 million people with psoriasis will develop arthritis or prevent this from happening. The arthritis affects around 640,000 people in the UK but despite new medicines being available for arthritis there are few studies telling us how to choose and combine these drugs in practice.
In my professorship, I will use data from a large European study to develop a simple risk calculator to allow people with psoriasis to estimate their risk of developing arthritis. This will help people living with psoriasis understand their risk but also help us to design future studies to prevent arthritis development in people who are high risk. I will also design a new national study to test personalisation of treatment for those who do develop arthritis. I will work with people living with PsA and medical teams to design this study using digital supports like apps and we will be able to test different treatments and personalise these for different people.
Professor Lorna Fraser's research summary: Improving Care for children with life-limiting Conditions: developing, adapting, impLementing and Evaluating interventions (ICICLE)
The number of children living with conditions that may shorten their lives is increasing, with children from minoritised ethnic groups and living in areas of high deprivation, particularly affected. Parents frequently become full time healthcare providers for their children, and report issues with fragmented care, battles with services and concerns over lack of support to ensure safety for their child. Although advances in medicine have enabled these children to survive longer, the healthcare system have not developed in parallel and families are often left unsupported.
Through this NIHR Professorship award I will lead research aims to assess and map the way services and support is delivered to children with life-shortening conditions and their families. Working with families I will then identify and make any changes required. These changes will be tested, rolled out and evaluated to understand if they make the care easier to access, more joined up, inclusive and of a higher quality.
Professor Michael Marks' research summary: Unravelling the mystery of Treponema pallidum: Novel insights in to syphilis to accelerate development of effective and accessible syphilis control strategies
Syphilis is an important sexually transmitted infection in the UK and worldwide. If untreated, syphilis can affect the brain and be passed on from pregnant women to their babies causing stillbirth. The number of people in the UK who get syphilis each year has increased steadily from a few hundred per year in the 1990s to more than 8,000 in 2023.
Through my professorship I will work with UKHSA and sexual health providers to explore how a range of new tools can be used to help reduce the number of cases of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections in the UK and worldwide. We will assess if we can use pathogen genomics to better understand transmission of syphilis and if novel diagnostic strategies may allow us to identify patients earlier to facilitate earlier treatment. We will work closely with community groups to understand preferences for novel strategies and how we can ensure they reach all of those at risk of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections.
Professor Mona Bafadhel's research summary: Clinical risk prediction models in COPD exacerbations
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common chronic lung condition affecting 1 in 10 adults in the United Kingdom. Exacerbations of COPD are periods of acute worsening of symptoms, which often lead people living with COPD to need urgent medical attention. In the UK, a person living with COPD is admitted to hospital with an exacerbation every 3 minutes. Exacerbations are associated with worsened quality of life, loss of lung function and can even lead to death.
In this award, data from exacerbations of COPD will be used to develop prediction tools across healthcare systems. These tools will derive the causes of the exacerbation, the best treatment, the sequalae and give confidence in the trajectory of the exacerbation. This will help to improve outcomes for millions of people experiencing an exacerbation of COPD.
Dr Naureen Starling's research summary: Liquid Biopsies to Transform the Diagnosis and Treatment of Gut Cancers
Patients with gut cancers account for one third of global cancer-related deaths and are some of the least survivable cancers. Pancreatic and bile duct cancer are especially affected by delayed diagnosis due to complex invasive tests, often inconclusive. Once diagnosed, chemotherapy dominates in gut cancers with debilitating short- and long-term side effects and life disruption. Liquid biopsies are simple blood tests that can detect tiny fragments of cancer in the blood (ctDNA) with results within days. They could revolutionise gut cancer diagnosis and treatment i.e. faster, safer and more accurate, sparing patients unnecessary treatments.
My research leverages five clinical projects in gut cancers where patients have consented to serial plasma sample collection. This substantial biobank supports evaluation of the best current tests and development of future low-cost new tests to detect ctDNA for: (1) Faster, more accurate diagnosis of suspected pancreatic/bile duct cancers (2) Sparing patients with negative tests after bowel cancer surgery unnecessary chemotherapy (3) Accurately guiding drug holidays. Our evidence generation with health economic and NHS partnership will enable NHS adoption of liquid biopsies in gut cancers within 5 years.