Research Community

The Centre for Military Women’s Research (CMWR)’s core mission is to inform and improve the well-being of women in the military and Veteran community through world-leading collaborative research and evaluation. Their work highlights women’s experiences, issues, and support needs and the centre is dedicated to fostering co-production with members of the military community and collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

Howard received his PhD in epidemiology for research on mental health and socioeconomic status of UK Armed Forces personnel transitioning to civilian life. Veterans and transition remain his primary areas of interest, including mental health, social, and economic outcomes. His experience is in mixed-methods research, including cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, randomised controlled trials, meta-analysis, and data linkage. He has published on the long-term mental health and socioeconomic outcomes of Veterans, as well as other areas of Armed Forces well-being and return from deployment. His current main study is ADVANCE-INVEST, on the consequences of battlefield injury to the transition outcomes of Veterans.

Fernando is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer at Swansea University. While in the United States, he was a President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota, and obtained a PhD degree in Informatics from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University. His research investigates the use of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research methods with vulnerable populations to design technologies with them rather than for them in both in-person and online/remote settings. His research uses surveys, interviews, observation, as well as co-design methods under the lenses of value-sensitive and speculative design to involve stakeholders in the design and development of a more ethical, inclusive, and equitable technology from the very beginning and throughout all the stages of the design process. Ultimately, he strives for amplifying the voice of those who are impacted by technology and allowing researchers and practitioners to be aware of potential negative impacts that such technologies may have on end users and stakeholders.

Dr O’Malley is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Crime at University of York. She has a long-standing interest in military welfare issues generally, and has undertaken research with homeless Veterans and the Veteran charity housing sector. This includes ongoing work on evidence collection for Riverside Group’s development of a housing 'roadmap' for the Armed Forces Community. She is also the Chair of the Expert Advisory Board for the Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre. 

Dr Moira Bailey is a part time Lecturer, freelance Consultant and Researcher at the Robert Gordon University. Her interest in Veteran research came about as a result of her being a member of the Veteran family - her late husband was a Royal Navy Veteran who had mental helath issues arising from his service. Her son also is a Navy Veteran. She was recently a member of the team which produced an independent report commissioned in 2022 by the Office of Veterans’ Affairs to explore the potential of improving female Veterans' access to support services. She is currently working on two projects for different Veteran charities to produce in depth evaluation reports. Moira is also interested in pursing further research in the female Veteran space as well as exploring the experiences of Veterans' carers. 

The Dymond Lab is a research centre based at Swansea University and home to two interrelated labs. The Experimental Psychopathology Lab investigates learning and emotion systems underpinning adaptive behaviour and examines generalization and extinction of fear and avoidance. The Swansea Gambling (SwanGam) Lab drives research, education, and treatment for all forms of gambling-related harm. Additionally, their work identifies those at heightened vulnerability to harm, such as military Veterans, and captures their harm pathways to better design and evaluate evidence-based treatment and intervention.