Published: 03 March 2022
The NIHR has appointed over 50 new Senior Investigators, with more than half based outside of London and the south east.
Following open competition, 55 NIHR Senior Investigators have been appointed in the 2022. In this 15th round, 30 new researchers have been newly appointed as NIHR Senior Investigators. A total of 25 current or previous award holders have been reappointed.
This round of appointments brings the College of NIHR Senior Investigators to 200 active members.
Nine new NIHR Emeritus Senior Investigators have been created in 2022, giving a total of 191 Emeritus Senior Investigators.
The majority of the 2022 appointments are located across the East of England, South and West Midlands and the North West, making up 32 of those 55 awardees.
NIHR Senior Investigators are among the most prominent and prestigious researchers funded by the NIHR and the most outstanding leaders of patient and people-based research within the NIHR research community.
NIHR Senior Investigators are critical to augmenting the ongoing success of NIHR, and developing the health research capability fit for the challenges we must meet.
Collectively, Senior Investigators constitute the NIHR College of Senior Investigators, and are members of the NIHR Academy. They help guide research capacity development and enhance the career paths of NIHR researchers. This includes participating as mentors in the NIHR mentoring programme.
NIHR Senior Investigators are able to occupy their positions for no more than two terms, in order to ensure turnover. This creates opportunities for new researchers to participate in NIHR at this level, incentivising the research community, while maintaining the college of Senior Investigators at a manageable size.
Emeritus status applies while the holders remain in substantive employment in England. It is a considerable achievement to attain Emeritus status, holders having succeeded twice in open competition and completed two terms as a Senior Investigator.
An independent expert committee chaired by Professor David Adams made recommendations to the Department of Health and Social Care on the 2022 appointments.
NIHR Senior Investigator status is awarded according to:
- criteria of contribution to NIHR
- quality and volume of internationally excellent research
- its relevance to patients and the public
- impact on improvements in healthcare and public health
- research leadership
- engagement of patients and the public
- engagement of healthcare policy makers and planners with their research
Full details of the 2022 NIHR Senior Investigator and Senior Investigator Emeritus appointments are available on the NIHR website. If you would like to find out about the Senior Investigators in your area of interest, please email academy@nihr.ac.uk for more details.
The 16th annual round of the NIHR Senior Investigators Competition will be announced in summer 2022. Leading researchers funded by the NIHR (and who are employed by a NHS Trust, university or charity based in England) are encouraged to apply.