Our People
Meet The Team
Executive Team
Professor Sonia Dalkin
Co-Director
An international expert in theory driven approaches to evaluation, with expertise in applied health and social care research. Sonia is particularly prominent in the field of realist evaluation, with methodological development at the crux of the research she undertakes. She uses mixed methods and co-design to develop and evaluate complex interventions alongside practice and policy partners.
Professor Angela Bate
Co-Director
Professor Angela Bate is a Health Economist and Health Services Researcher known for advancing health economic methods in complex public health evaluations. Angela’s research interests intersect health economics, public health evaluation, and social value measurement, focussing on the development and application of health economic methods to meet the needs of policy and decision-makers.
Professor Jason Scott
Deputy Director
A Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) with expertise in applied health and social care research, with a particular focus on quality and safety. Jason uses mixed methods and co-design to develop and evaluate innovative healthcare, social care and community interventions.
Vivienne Hibberd
PPIE Co-Lead
Vivienne Hibberd has a background in mental health and Widening Participation in higher education. She has several years of experience in contributing to and leading public and patient involvement in health and social care research, including research projects in pharmacy, NHS Health Checks and Realist and Economic Evaluation Methods (REEM). Vivienne is the co-lead for the IDEAS Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Group.
Key Methodology Leads
Dr Eduwin Pakpahan
Eduwin is a statistician with primary research interests are in graphical model, longitudinal data analysis, and epidemiological studies. In particular, he has worked on methodologies for joint model and survival analysis using big data (including secondary data analysis). His current works includes the computational statistics and causal inference and the interplay between social and health science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and co-leads the IDEAS Quantitative and Routine Data methodology group
Professor Darren Flynn
A practitioner health psychologist with expertise in co-design and evaluation of behaviour change interventions for healthcare practitioners and people living with long-term conditions, with a focus on person-centred care (shared decision-making). Darren is lead of the methodological group on mixed methods.
Professor Joanne Gray
An experienced health economist with special interests in economic evaluation of health & social care interventions and priority setting methods to help underpin commissioning processes. She is co-Head of Research & Knowledge Exchange in the department of Nursing Midwifery and Health and also leads the health economics and applied statistics research group.
Professor Katie Haighton
An experienced applied health and social care researcher with significant methodological expertise in the development (through evidence synthesis) and evaluation of complex innovations. Katie is lead for the evidence synthesis methodology group.
Professor Peter McMeekin
A Health Economist with an interest in using real world data to answer questions about the effectiveness of health and social care interventions and policies. Peter currently leads the Analysis of Routine Data Methodology Group of IDEAS NET.
Professor Peter Van der Graaf
I am an international expert in knowledge mobilisation, drawing upon an extensive career in applying research evidence and translating knowledge from the Social Sciences and Health into policy and practice, both in the Netherlands and in the UK. Skilled in mixed design approaches, Peter has developed and evaluated innovative solutions to the knowledge-doing gap, such as AskFuse and SPHR PHPES, and is leading in national collaborative research partnerships, such as NIHR PHIRST and ARC NENC to create impact.
Dr Sebastian Potthoff
A Chartered Health Psychologist and implementation science researcher with expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods. In my research I draw upon theories and approaches from health psychology and behavioural medicine to develop and evaluate interventions aimed at changing healthcare professional behaviour and health behaviours of patients and the public.
Professor Sue Carr
A Professor Emeritus in Public Health Research, Sue has substantial experience in public health, primary care, education and research across the life course. Her approach is underpinned be a translational philosophy and the development of collaborative solutions with a particular interest in public involvement and engagement.
Professor Tom Sanders
A qualitative methodologist with an interest in patient experiences of chronic illness/long term conditions, healthcare organisation and implementation. Currently working on a study to test a digital app for people with MS Fatigue, and recently completed a trial of a symptoms clinic in primary care for people with physically persistent (unexplained) symptoms.
(Qualitative Methodology Group).
Professor Tracy Finch
An implementation scientist of 25+ years of postdoctoral research in applied health care and implementation science. Tracy has developed and applies implementation theories, models and frameworks to the study of complex health and care interventions, with qualitative methodology expertise that includes process evaluation in trial and other evaluation research designs.
Dr Will McGovern
PPIE Co-Lead
Will McGovern Is an Associate Professor of Marginalised Communities at Northumbria University. He is a professionally qualified community development worker and has held leadership roles for Public Involvement as a practitioner in the NHS and as a researcher/academic. Will is currently leading and in the process of publishing an international edited book collection on Public Involvement and Community Engagement in Applied Health and Social Care Research.
Research Fellows
Dr Josephine Wildman
Jo is an experienced mixed-methods researcher with expertise in evaluating complex health, social care, and community interventions. She has designed and delivered research across a range of topics, including social prescribing, brief interventions supporting people experiencing emotional distress, and the impacts of Scotland’s devolved disability and family social security benefits. Jo is also interested in improving access to research for ‘seldom-heard’ groups.
Dr Julie Williams
Julie is a health services researcher with experience of implementation science and mixed methods research. She has a clinical background as an occupational therapist. She has mainly worked in mental health services.
Dr Anando Sen
Anando has a strong mathematical/statistical background with particular interest in quantitative applications in healthcare. He has used mathematical modelling to drive data-intensive projects such as standardisation of paediatric clinical trial data, population representativeness of clinical trials, tumour detection in medical images, radiology-pathology correlation, among others. In addition, he has served as a statistical expert in a wide variety of projects – similarity-based recruitment for clinical trials, patient registries, quality of life for neuromuscular disease, and biomechanical modelling for brain shift during surgery.
Project Support
Jamie Taylor
Jamie is an accomplished management professional with extensive experience in supporting and guiding teams across various research projects.
