Executive Group

The Executive Group is chaired by the School’s Director, Professor Yvonne Birks, and is the collective decision-making body of the School.

The voting members are the Lead Investigators from each member institution. Two Deputy Directors (who may differ from the institutional lead), representatives from our User Carer Group (non-voting members), the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Department of Health and Social Care, and NIHR Academy also attend.

• The Executive Group oversees SSCR’s development, decides the research priorities, monitors progress against strategic aims and helps ensure collaborative working between members
• The Executive Group delegates responsibility for the day-to-day running of the School to the Management Group.

Meet the Executive Group

• Yvonne Birks, SSCR Director (Chair)

• Katherine Runswick-Cole, SSCR Deputy Director

• Phillip Whitehead,  SSCR Deputy Director

• Claire Surr, Lead Investigator (Leeds Beckett University)

• Catherine Needham, Lead Investigator (University of Birmingham)

• David Abbott, Lead Investigator (University of Bristol)

• Jen Hill, SSCR Programme Manager

• Karen Spilsbury, Lead Investigator (University of Leeds)

• Martin Knapp, Lead Investigator (London School of Economics and Political Science)

• Laura Mason, Social Care Programme Lead, NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research)

• Rifat Mahbub, Senior Research Programme Manager, NIHR

• Sophie Kay, Senior Research Programme Manager, Department of Health and Social Care

• Jennie Hejdenberg, Senior Research Manager, NIHR

• Amy Bell, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Academy

• Karen Fernando, Assistant Director, Infrastructure and Capacity Building Structures Team, NIHR

The remit of the Executive Group is to:

• ensure and facilitate collaborative working between members,

• discuss and agree strategic direction and priorities for research, research capacity building, knowledge exchange, involvement and engagement and impact,

• have oversight of the processes for the approval of the research projects proposed by members in line with agreed priorities,

• agree on the use of funding in the School,

• advise the Director on strategic and operational issues,

• monitor progress against strategic aims.

The Executive Group meets four times per year. Of these, two meetings will be held remotely by videoconference and two will be in person with one of these to coincide with the Annual Conference. The location of in-person meetings will be rotated across the geographic location of members. Attendance will usually include the Lead Investigator plus one of the other named applicants from the remaining four named in the member applications in the event that the institutional lead cannot attend. The Executive Group will delegate responsibility for the day-to-day running of the School to a Management Group.