Research Community

Professor Nicola Fear holds a Chair in Epidemiology at the Academic Department of Military Mental Health and is Director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at King’s College London and one of the Directors of the Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre. Nicola has worked in the field of occupational health throughout her career, including within the UK Ministry of Defence as their Consultant Epidemiologist. She trained in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford, from where she obtained her doctorate. Professor Fear is one of the Principal Investigators on the KCMHR military cohort study and leads several studies looking at the impact of military service on families. 

As a social scientist within Robert Gordon University, Professor Zoe Morrison worked to further the application of business and management studies to policy driven change programmes. Her work aimed to inform leadership and human resource management theory through understanding individual experiences of change, including changing expectations of work, careers and employment, and adoption and implementation of technological innovation. Her interpretivist research agenda was curiosity inspired and theoretically driven, drawing on the sociology of work and organisations, and military and family sociologies. Zoe worked in three areas: health, defence and carbon emissions mitigation, often referred to as decarbonisation. Zoe has now moved role to be the Lead Specialist in Culture and Experience at NHS Grampian. 

RAND Europe is a not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to improve policy and decision-making through objective research. It combines the impartiality and academic rigour of a university with the client-oriented delivery approach of a consultancy. RAND Europe’s Defence and Security research group conducts research on a range of subjects, including those relating to Defence workforces and the wider Armed Forces Community. Examples of recent work undertaken by the Defence and Security group in this area include research examining the impact of the Armed Forces Covenant and multiple studies examining areas of potential disadvantage (e.g., employment, financial stability and social care) faced by members of the Armed Forces Community.

Rebecca Steel is the Director of the College for Military Veterans and Emergency Services based at the University of Central Lancashire, she has led the programme of transition and engagement for the armed forces community for the past three years. Rebecca is a strong advocate for education as a pathway to transition.

In addition, Rebecca is from a military family with three service children of her own. Rebecca’s research portfolio involves a number of studies and focusses on the impact of military mobility/transition on education and the future trajectories of families engaged with military service. Rebecca’s research employs participatory and mixed methodologies to explore themes around education, learning, and employment to ensure a level playing field and sense of agency for those hidden voices of the military community who are seldom heard.

Rebecca is currently leading research on identifying the needs of service young people, veterans, and spouses in Further and Higher Education.

Rebecca is a member of the Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance Management Group, chairs the North West’s SCiP Hub, a founder member of Lancashire Armed Forces Covenant Hub and is involved in several active research programmes locally, nationally and internationally

The Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research are a multi-disciplinary team conducting integral translational research in the Armed Forces Community. The Northern Hub’s research profile is both qualitative and quantitative, covering health and social care, public health, psychology, social policy, human geography, and nursing. They consistently work to attract and facilitate collaboration across the Armed Forces sector, working with a variety of organisations across the Government, Local Authorities, NHS and Third Sector.

The Veterans & Families Institute for Military Social Research carries out research, policy development and consultation on the impact of military Service - improving the well-being of Veterans, Service personnel and their families. Their work falls into four key areas of research: Thriving Families, Transition Measurement and Service Improvement, Women and Equalities, and Narrative. They have a growing domestic and international profile and are involved in NATO research on military-to-civilian transition, and sexual violence, as well as collaborative work with international universities.