ARC East Midlands Theme Lead becomes NIHR Senior Investigator

News
Date published
19/03/2024

Professor Laura Gray has been appointed as a Senior Investigator by the NIHR.

Laura is Professor of Medical Statistics and Research Director for the Department of Population Health Sciences along with co-lead of the Biostatistics Research Group. She is also the Theme Lead for the Data2Health theme at the NIHR ARC East Midlands.

NIHR Senior Investigators are among the most prominent and prestigious researchers funded by the NIHR, so we are delighted that Laura has been recognised as an outstanding leader within the research community.

Her work involves the identification, prevention and management of chronic and multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs), including the development of a ‘Know Your Risk’ tool on the Diabetes UK website, which allows members of the public to assess their risk of having Type 2 diabetes. To date it has been completed by around 3 million people.

She said: “I’m really proud to have been selected to be a Senior Investigator and to be an ambassador for the NIHR. The existing Senior Investigators include many of my personal role models and I’m very humbled to become part of this prestigious group.

“I’m also passionate about integrating meaningful patient and public involvement (PPI) into my methodological research.  It’s challenging but it has become a personal priority for me to develop resources and guidance for other statisticians to improve PPI for statistical methodology research across the NIHR.”

NIHR Senior Investigators are critical to augmenting the ongoing success of NIHR, and developing the health research capability fit for the challenges we must meet.

The NIHR has appointed 43 new Senior Investigators in 2024. The award brings with it £20,000 per year to support the individual’s research for the next four years.