The 2024/2025 cohort of NIHR Oxford Senior Research Fellows, who completed their fellowships at the end of December 2025, have shared an update on the impact of their awards.
The NIHR Oxford Senior Research Fellowship award recognises and supports mid-career individuals with the potential and trajectory to become future leaders in translational research in the NIHR in Oxford.
Fellows receive an award of £5,000 a year for two years that may be used flexibly to facilitate their translational research programme and career development. Funding can be used for conference costs, career development and leadership training. Fellows must also complete a Leadership Programme consisting of workshops and coaching sessions.
The four Senior Research Fellows from Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (OH BRC) have provided reports, detailing how they used their award funding, the benefits of the Fellowship, how they have been supported in collaborative networking, the impact of the award and what their next steps will be.
Dr Ludovica Griffanti, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Principal Investigator at the Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, and OH BRC Dementia Theme Researcher said:
“My Senior Research Fellowship award enabled the translation of UK Biobank–aligned brain imaging into routine NHS memory clinic practice, improving diagnostic confidence and service efficiency. The approach generates research‑quality, scalable data, has been recognised through the UK Biobank Scientific Impact Award 2025, and isnow adopted beyond Oxford and beyond dementia.”
Speaking on the impact of the Fellowship, Dr Lucy Foulkes, Prudence Trust Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology and OH BRC Mental Health in Development Theme researcher said:
“My Fellowship enabled the creation of the Museum of Mental Health in the Media, a public‑facing website co‑designed with young people that encourages reflection and debate about portrayals of mental health across film, TV, music and advertising, extending its reach through social media engagement.”
Dr Jiedi Lei, Paul Foundation Clinical Research Fellow, Clinical Psychologist and OH BRC Mental Health in Development Theme researcher said:
“The funding has allowed our team to carry out co-production work with autistic young people and their parents/carers, developing pilot workshops to support parents/carers of autistic young people to explore strengths in their children. The team has also secured additional funding to run a workshop study with autistic young people to challenge stereotypes and explore everyday strengths use through zine making (a type of booklet).
“The funding has also allowed for team expansion and paid research assistant time to conduct an in-depth systematic review on character strengths in autistic people. With the increased research capacity from the past two years, my research group has secured additional funding the next five years to continue to grow the programme of developing strengths-based approaches to support neurodivergent children and young people and their families and will continue to lead work in neurodiversity area.”
Dr Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain in the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, Honorary Consultant Gynaecologist and OH BRC Pain Theme researcher said:
“My award allowed me to work closely with a senior Clinical Psychologist to begin to develop psychologically informed interventions for women with chronic pelvic pain. We have secured further funding to coproduce resources and hope to be able to test these in clinical trials in the future”.
