Promoting excellence
UKRD (UK Research & Development) is a representative body for research in the NHS, promoting excellence, discipline and professional development within R&D leadership. In consultation with our members, we enable high quality research, develop and share best practice and clear standards, and help the financial sustainability of NHS R&D through our support of trusts and commercial partners.
Mission statement
Bringing R&D leaders together to be powerful influencers of change, positively impacting health research for public and patient benefit
Leadership Dyad
At the core of our work is the promotion of the R&D Leadership Dyad, a successful pairing of Managers and Directors in a working couplet to ensure a multi-dimensional perspective.
The end goal of all our work is always to achieve quicker, quality clinical research for the benefit of NHS patients.
Visit our map to view our full UKRD community.
UKRD Community
UKRD Leadership Team
Non-clinical
Nick McNally, Director of Research Support NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre
Dr Nick McNally is Managing Director, Research at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and UCL.
Nick has extensive experience of research in the NHS and University sectors having held senior management and leadership roles in biomedical research for the last 18 years. In his current role as Managing Director at UCLH/UCL he oversees the UCLH/UCL Joint Research Office, which he led the establishment of in 2005, as well as all NIHR infrastructure at UCLH/UCL including the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility. Alongside clinical academic leaders at UCLH/UCL, Nick has co-led many NIHR and other funding bids including 3 successful BRC bids (>£300M). Nick has extensive experience of research leadership and senior management in the NHS and University sectors.
Nicholas Bell, Director of Research & Innovation, Sheffield Health & social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Nick has been Director of Research at Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust since 2012.
During this time Trust recruitment to national portfolio studies has increased five-fold and there has been a significant increase research income from grants and commercial trials. Nick is passionate about clinical research as a driver for quality improvement, innovation and efficiency. Prior to working for SHSC Nick worked for Health Dialog in Boston USA and Cambridge UK and led a team collaborating with the King’s Fund and the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making to build the PARR++ and combined predictive models for the NHS. Nick’s experience also includes working for the Audit Commission as a Health Specialist and at the Bank of England as an analyst.
Kate Blake, Director of R&D Strategy, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Kate Blake has been the Director of Research & Development Strategy at Guy’s & St Thomas’ held since 2012.
Since 2006 Kate has been instrumental in developing the Guy’s & St Thomas’ research infrastructure and research strategy relating to NIHR. She played a key role in the award of an NIHR Biomedical Research Centre to the Trust in partnership with King’s College London in 2006 (renewed 2012 and 2017) and the CRF in 2012 and 2017 as well as hosting the South London NIHR Clinical Research Network in 2008 and in 2013. Kate led the Trust’s involvement in securing the contract for the NIHR’s Clinical Research Network’s Coordinating Centre for the Trust, in collaboration with the University of Leeds in 2014. Kate, in partnership with Professor Charles Wolfe the Director of Research & Development at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, was a member of the first cohort of the NIHR/Ashridge Leadership Development Programme for R&D Directors/Managers which was established in 2012. Kate has been a member of the R&D Leadership Community Task Force.
Teresa Grieve, Associate Director of R&D, University Hospitals of Derby & Burton NHS Foundation Trust
Prior to joining Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Teresa Grieve enjoyed a 9 year career as a post-doctoral research fellow and lecturer in plant molecular genetics at the University of Nottingham.
During this time, Teresa developed an in-depth knowledge of research methodology & the research funding landscape, as well as developing skills required for crafting successful research grant applications.
Teresa joined Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in October 1998, when it was known as Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. She built the Research & Development Department from a zero base into a department that provides the support required to grow & develop both the quality and quantity of research undertaken within the Trust. This infrastructure has supported and enabled Trust researchers to win significant research grants in recent years and to provide critical support for staff at the start of their research careers, including both medical and non-medical staff groups.
Teresa has developed and delivered a number of Research, Development & Innovation Strategies over the years, including the latest strategy for 2015-2020. In 2017, Teresa led the successful application for Provisional UKCRC Registration for the Derby Clinical Trials Unit of which she is Co-Director.
Teresa is the Intellectual Property (IP) lead for the Trust and supports the identification, protection & commercialisation of IP generated by Trust personnel. This work contributes to the interface with commercial enterprises which is of particular interest to Teresa, as is spear-heading all external collaborations with organisations including: HEIs, health & life sciences industry, East Midlands Research Design Service (Chair of the Regional Operational Group and member of the Management Board), Clinical Research Network, Medilink East Midlands.
Lynis Lewis, Service Director of Research & Development, Noclor
I have been the Service Director of Noclor since 2005 and overseen the development of the service from being the R&D office for one mental health Trust and 5 PCTs to managing the research for seven mental health and community Trusts and 12 CCGs across North West, North Central and East London. I am a member of the advisory board for the newly established Institute of Mental Health at UCL and sit on the UCL BRC mental health theme executive as well as being a member of the R&D Forum primary care working group. I am currently the mental health specialty lead for the North Thames CRN.
I am deeply committed to Noclor’s partner organisations vision and strategies for research; they are all underpinned by a firm commitment to promote research throughout their organisations as an essential factor in continually improving the effectiveness of health services and patient outcomes.
Christine McGrath, Director of Research & Development, University Hospital Southampton (UKRD Chair)
Christine is the Director of Research and Development at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.
Christine provides leadership in developing and executing the Trust’s vision for research, drawing on her expertise in R&D strategy, policy, funding and governance to deliver high quality research for the benefit of patients and the public.
Her time at Southampton has seen a four-fold increase in the Trust’s research income, the establishment of senior research leads across our clinical divisions and implementation of core teams and posts that have delivered year-on-year increases in research volume and efficiency. These impacts and UHS’s 2013 Health Services Journal award for Progressive research indicate the scale of culture change Christine has fostered in Southampton, driven onwards through the UHS 2017-2022 R&D Strategy.
Christine is active in developing national partnerships, collaborations and debate focussed on faster, easier, research, embedded in the NHS, working extensively with the National Institute of Health Research, NHS R&D Forum, the Department of Health and Royal Colleges. In 2017 Christine was appointed to the UK Government’s Ministerial Industry Steering Group for commercial research – working group, contributing her experience and knowledge from career-long leadership in this field.
Christine joined Southampton in 2006, a key part of the Trust’s newly established 2020 vision to become a world class clinical academic centre of excellence. Christine’s role on the Joint Research Strategy Board and in key University of Southampton strategic bodies has been critical to ensuring alignment and growth of clinical and academic research in Southampton.
Dedicated to ensuring that clinical research thrives in the NHS, UK academic and industry sectors, Christine moved into research management in 2003 following a career in research nursing, completing her Masters by Research with the University of Bristol.
Phillip Smith, Associate Director of Research & Development, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
Phillip has been Associate Director of Research and Development at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust since Nov 2015. During that time his leadership saw the development and successful implementation of the Trust’s Research Strategy which seeks to enhance patient experience and outcome through research and innovation.
Phillip and Christine McGrath set-up the UKRD and NHS R&D Forum Finance Managers group which is seeking to increase ensure that we, as a nation, can make best use of research funding to support research.
Phillip has recently completed an 11 months (0.2 wte) secondment to the Eastern Academic Health Science Network as the inaugural Innovation Ambassador. The main aim of this role was to develop a toolkit to help organisations more easily identify and turn great ideas into patient benefit.
Prior to this Phillip has worked for the National Institute for Health Research from 2008 to 2015. This followed a three year role as Assistant Director for Research and Intellectual Property for The Ipswich NHS Trust (also covered Primary Care and Mental Health in Suffolk).
Phillip has also delivered a number of other roles including: Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, Co-chair of the NHS R&D Forum Strategy Group, National Governance Lead for the NIHR Clinical Research Network Pandemic Flu Coordinating Group, Senior Research Fellow within the Centre for Research in Health and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Scientific Officer, Mid Essex NHS Research Ethics Committee.
Along the way Phillip has also applied his skills to the voluntary sector and spent 4 years as Chair of Governors for a local primary school.
Jules West, Operational Director of Research Development & Innovation at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Jules has been the Operational Director in RD&I since 2009 and been key in developing the research agenda for the Trust aligned to the NIHR strategy. Jules was part of the first cohort to attend the NIHR Ashridge Leadership and Development Programme, the Ashridge programme inspired Jules to develop her Leadership knowledge and skills so in 2018 undertook an MBA and is about to complete her dissertation which is due in January 2021.
Jules was integral in the Liverpool Clinical Research Facility (CRF) achieving MHRA Phase 1 Accreditation which was the 1st in England and has held this for the past 6 years conducting First in Human studies, Healthy Volunteer studies and a breadth of phase 1 and 2a studies. Following the merger of Royal Liverpool Hospital and Aintree Hospital Jules has expanded her portfolio to take forward the research and innovation strategy for the newly merged organisation.
Ensuring that clinical research is world class at Liverpool University Hospitals is a key driver and Jules is keen to learn from the UKRD community and share her knowledge and experiences so all patients and staff can benefit from shared research practices.
Dr Sarah Williams, Associate Director of Research & Improvement, Solent NHS Trust
Sarah has a background in public health research, having worked on sexual and reproductive health promotion programmes primarily in Eastern Africa (with Marie Stopes International) and Central America (UNDP/ UNICEF). She joined the NHS 12 years ago, and works to make research fit for purpose for use in community and mental health settings.
She established and now leads the Solent Academy of Research & Improvement. The first of its kind in the NHS, it provides an integrated approach to research, clinical effectiveness, quality improvement and patient and public partnership working. The point of this is to provide an accessible source of a support for staff, communities and service users to engage in research and other improvement activities.
Sarah is a strong advocate for growing community based research, for increasing access and equity and for improving the reputation of research across the NHS. She is particularly passionate about ensuring that the patient/ family voice is at the heart, and in breaking down barriers to enhance community collaborations.
Sarah sits on a number of national research leadership groups, and was part of the founding cohort of UKRD. She has spoken nationally on involving patients and on bringing a bit more joy into the research landscape.
Clinical
Ameet Bakhai, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FESC, FFCI. Research Director & Cardiologist, Royal Free London NHS Trust
Ameet Bakhai is a Consultant Cardiologist and R&D Director at the Royal Free London NHS Trust UK, a Harvard Scholar, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, European Society of Cardiology and Faculty of Clinical Informatics.
He has enabled innovation of drugs, devices and diagnostics in multiple cardiac areas of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, acute coronary syndromes and risk factor reduction for cardiovascular events.
He is a founder, author and has published over 100 papers and received a national award for a decade of work in clinical cardiovascular research from the Royal College of Physicians and is a recognised for Clinical Trials & Research, Technology Innovation and Medical Education.
Nigel Brunskill, Director of Research & Innovation, University Hospitals Leicester
Nigel Brunskill graduated MBChB from University of Leicester School of Medicine in 1984 and subsequently trained in nephrology in the UK and USA.
He has held research fellowships from both MRC and Wellcome Trust and gained a PhD in Renal Cell Biology in 1997. As an active clinical academic he has been Honorary Consultant Nephrologist for University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust since 1997 and University of Leicester Professor of Renal Medicine since 2006. His research interests are in the cellular mechanisms of proteinuria and progressive kidney disease, clinical studies of chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury, and related medical informatics, and renal disease in pregnancy. He has jointly led the UHL Renal Obstetric Service for 15 years.
He is Director of Research and Innovation for UHL NHS Trust and University of Leicester Lead for Clinical Research. He is Co-Chair of the UK Kidney Research Consortium Chronic Kidney Disease Clinical Study Group and serves on the National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine-East Midlands Management Executive Committee. He is Director of the NIHR Leicester Clinical Research Facility.
Nick Hart, MB BS BSc MRCP PhD FFICM FERS
Director of Research and Development Delivery, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
Clinical Director, Respiratory, Adult Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
Professor of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Lane Fox Clinical Respiratory Physiology Centre, Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Science, School of Basic and Biomedical Sciences, Kings College London
Joint Editor-in-Chief, THORAX, International Journal of Respiratory, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine
Professor Hart was appointed as Clinical Director for Sleep, Respiratory and Critical Care at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in February 2020 and he has directed the critical care response to the COVID-19 pandemic with 1093 patients admitted to the critical care with an overall critical care survival of 76% since March 2nd 2020, including the Prime Minister. From 2012 to 2020, he was Head of the Lane Fox Respiratory Service, which is an internationally recognised weaning, rehabilitation and home mechanical ventilation service, which currently houses the largest weaning and rehabilitation unit in the UK and supports over 2700 patients with chronic respiratory failure. He was appointed in 2015 as Joint Editor-in-Chief of Thorax with the impact factor increasing to 9.1. Professor Hart is R&D Director of Delivery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and his own research group is focused on reducing hospital admissions and improving quality of life in patients with chronic respiratory disease and post critical illness. Professor Hart established the Lane Fox Clinical Respiratory Physiology Research Centre in 2007 and he has developed a programme of research focused on admission prevention in COPD, muscle wasting prevention during critical illness and enhancing outcome in chronic respiratory failure and sleep disordered breathing.
Julian Walker, Director of Research and Development, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Julian began his career at the Maudsley Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience where he trained in clinical and forensic psychology and completed his PhD. In 2003 he moved to AWP to work on the new Fromeside Medium Secure Unit which opened in 2005. He then moved into developing new services for personality disordered offenders within probation and prison settings.
He has been a Consultant Forensic Clinical Psychologist for 15 years and R&D Director for 10 years; he has 30 publications in forensic mental health including personality disorder, forensic services and payment by results. He was a national lead for specialised forensic pathways commissioning and locally chairs the Bristol Health Partners Digital Health R&D Group due to his interest in using routine data to link and improve services.
Alumni
Navjot Ahluwalia, Executive Medical Director and Director of Research, Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust
(UKRD Alumni)
Nav has been a doctor since 1992 and a Consultant Psychiatrist specialising in Substance Misuse since 2002. He has been the Executive Medical Director of the Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH, a mental health and community services provider) since 2012 and its Director of Research since 2013. He has a wide range of portfolio responsibilities including media management, medico-legal leadership and patient information systems.
He has postgraduate qualifications in psychiatry, management and leadership, and education. He holds leadership positions in these areas at a local, regional and national level.
He had undertaken research personally and as a principle investigator in studies but he sees his role primarily in building organisational research culture and understanding, driving performance as well as Board level governance. During his time as the Trust’s Director of Research the tiny (but wonderful) research team has gone from an embarrassing 42 recruits per year to smashing its CRN target every year usually by 200-300%, with 1200-1900 in 2018-2020 alone. His mantra is that research must involve every staff member (including the domestics and the Chief Executive) and every patient/citizen especially those who are vulnerable or marginalised. He likes to challenge ‘traditional’ thinking and ways of doing things.
Matthew Peak, Director of Research & Development, (UKRD Co-Chair Alumni)
Previously Co-Chair of UKRD, Professor Peak was appointed Director of Research at Alder Hey in 2005 and in 2006 led the successful bid for a NIHR Medicines for Children Local Research Network.
He was Co-Director of the NIHR Alder Hey Clinical Research Facility for Experimental Medicine and investigator on a number of awards from MRC, NIHR and Medical Charities in the field of paediatrics with a focus on children’s medicines. He lead the Liverpool Paediatric Medicines Research Unit and was the Children’s Speciality Lead for the NIHR NW Coast
Region. Research networks led by Professor Peak have recruited over 35,000 babies, children and young people to studies.
Tracy Shalom, Associate Director of Research, Norfolk & Suffolk Primary & Community Care Research Office (UKRD Alumni)
As Associate Director of Research at NHS South Norfolk CCG, Tracy leads the strategic and operational development of research for Norfolk and Waveney CCGs.
Tracy is focussed on embedding a shared culture of research and ensuring that research programmes help address population and health care service challenges. She has set up the Norfolk and Suffolk Research System Steering Group to support strong collaboration and joint planning across NHS and academic organisations.
Tracy joined research management in 2007 and has lead the expansion and development of the Norfolk and Suffolk Primary and Community Care Research Office which supports all aspects of research across the 7 Norfolk and Suffolk CCGs, GP sites, Norfolk Community Health and Care and East Coast Community Healthcare. She represents all trusts across CRN Eastern as one of the HRA’s Research Champions.
Over the last 10 years, Norfolk and Waveney has become one of the strongest primary care infrastructures in the UK with most GP sites involved in research and over 60,000 patients participating. Sustained investment in research development has delivered 12 NIHR grants for the CCG including a Programme Grant for Applied Research. Tracy is committed to making research central to commissioning decisions, and has broadened the work of her research office to help support the CCG’s ability to commission evidence based care and evaluate service change.
Tracy undertook her doctoral research in biochemistry at the University of Bradford and spent her early career with Glaxo Group Research. She joined the NHS in 1991 and has undertaken a range of commissioning roles in primary care, public health, performance and health improvement.