Chris Fox – Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Co-Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) in Sustainable Innovation – has been awarded NIHR Senior Investigator status, a prestigious title recognising his outstanding contribution to research.
Professor Fox, a renowned expert in mental health and dementia research, is one of the latest academics to be honoured with this title, joining an outstanding group of leading researchers who form the distinguished NIHR Academy and College of Senior Investigators.
NIHR Senior Investigators are influential researchers who make outstanding leadership contributions to the work of the NIHR. Recipients receive funding for four years to support their research activities while undertaking a senior leadership role for the NIHR.
Professor Fox said: “I’m truly delighted and honoured to become an NIHR Senior Investigator, alongside such a distinguished group of researchers. This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the consistent support of the NIHR, and it’s a reflection of the incredible teamwork and dedication of everyone I work with, all striving to improve people’s health and wellbeing.”
As co-director of the NIHR HRC in Sustainable Innovation, hosted by the Royal Devon University Healthcare Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Exeter, Professor Fox plays a key role in supporting its work to identify patient needs and respond with cutting-edge solutions, either by developing new technologies or optimising existing ones.
As part of this, the NIHR HRC in Sustainable Innovation collaborate with businesses to develop medical devices, diagnostics, and digital technologies that enable earlier diagnosis, better health monitoring, and improved management of conditions including dementia, cancer, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease with a focus on sustainability. Additionally, Fox is co-lead of a National Dementia Network Plus, SPIN-D, part of a strategic investment by NIHR, with ESRC and Alzheimer’s Society. His projects, which are aligned to the ARC East of England and PenARC, focus on utilising AI and technical devices to enhance the delivery and assessment of healthcare. Currently, Professor Fox is leading five national NIHR programmes: TIMES (sleep, dementia, and coexisting conditions), CARECOACH (support for carers), DISCOVERY (recovery colleges), SPLENDID (social prescribing), and INFLAIM (AI diet risk modelling to prevent coexisting conditions).
