Research Community

Professor Matt Kiernan is the Director of The Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families' Research at Northumbria University. Prior to this, he was the Head of Mental Health Nursing in the Royal Navy, the Specialist Nurse Advisor for Mental Health (Royal Navy) and the Defence Specialist Nurse Advisor (Mental Health). In his current role, he leads a range of research projects involving Veterans, Service personnel and their families, exploring health and social care, public health, psychology, social policy, human geography and nursing.

Professor Neil Greenberg is a clinical and academic Psychiatrist based at King’s College London, specialising in adult, occupational and forensic psychiatry. Neil served in the United Kingdom Armed Forces for more than 23 years deploying as a Psychiatrist and Researcher. At King’s College London, Neil is a senior member of the military mental health research team and a Principal Investigator within a nationally funded Health Protection Research Unit which investigates the psychological impacts of trauma on organisations. Neil also runs March on Stress and chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) Special Interest Group in Occupational Psychiatry, as well as leading on the World Psychiatric Association’s Position Statement on Mental Health in the Workplace. 

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. 

Professor Paul Farrand is Professor of Evidence Based Psychological Practice and Research, and Director of the Low-Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (LICBT) portfolio within Clinical Education, Development and Research (CEDAR), Psychology University of Exeter. He holds several Expert Advisor positions and at an international level acts as a Scientific Advisor regarding worldwide developments in Low-Intensity CBT. He is an internationally renowned expert in LICBT (CBT self-help) and has substantial expertise CBT self-help interventions, especially in a written and mobile phone app format and adapting the interventions for specific groups, such as Armed Forces Veterans, Muslims, Informal Carers and several physical health populations. Paul is currently working on an OVA-funded research project adapting an AI-driven mobile phone app (Iona) to ensure acceptability and effectiveness for ex-servicewomen. 

Professor Sir Simon Wessely FRS is a Psychiatrist and Epidemiologist. He started his psychiatry training at the Maudsley in 1984, and has been at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London, ever since. He established the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) in 1996 and remains the Co-director alongside Professor Nicola Fear. His main areas of research have been in unexplained symptoms/syndromes, military health, epidemiology, clinical trials and how populations and people react to adversity.

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.