Staff Profile

About NIHR SPHR

Established in April 2012, the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) is a partnership between 9 leading centres of academic public health research excellence. From 2022, the members are as follows: the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter and Sheffield; Imperial College London; The London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); the LiLaC collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster; PHRESH, a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Keele; and Fuse, The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, a collaboration between Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities.

With a total budget of £30.5 million over 5 years, the School aims to build the evidence base for effective public health practice by bringing together England’s leading public health research expertise in one virtual organisation and building capacity in public health research. For more information, please see the SPHR website. In 2023 the School was awarded an additional £10 million to work on a programme of prevention research with the NIHR School for Primary Care (SPCR) and the NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR).

Role & responsibilities 

Susan works with the SPHR Director, Professor Ashley Adamson, to lead the strategic development and delivery of the NIHR funded School for Public Health Research to ensure the deliverables and objectives of this complex, national, multidisciplinary School are achieved. Susan's role includes direct line management and development of the Directorate support staff team based in Newcastle, as well as the overall coordination of the nine members (16 universities) across England and the full budget of >£40.5 million. Susan works closely with external stakeholders including research centres and universities, government organisations, the Department of Health and Social Care and NIHR.

Previous positions

2013-2017 Research Project Manager, Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit (Newcastle University)

2016-2017 Acting Operations Manager, Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit (Newcastle University)

2012-2013 Department Manager (two departments) - Perinatal Imaging & Health and Cardiovascular Imaging (King's College London)

2011-2012 Clinical Research Facilitator (Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust/Institute of Child Health, UCL)

2008-2011 Grants Adviser (Wellcome Trust) 

2003-2004 Research Assistant (Rowett Research Institute)

Qualifications

2004-2008 - PhD Medical Sciences (Newcastle University)

1999-2003 - BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science – Pharmacology (University of Aberdeen)

• Articles

  • Hellyer TP, McAuley DF, Walsh TS, Anderson N, Conway Morris A, Singh S, Dark P, Roy AI, Perkins GD, McMullan R, Emerson LM, Blackwood B, Wright SE, Kefala K, O'Kane CM, Baudouin SV, Paterson RL, Rostron AJ, Agus A, Bannard-Smith J, Robin NM, Welters ID, Bassford C, Yates B, Spencer C, Laha SK, Hulme J, Bonner S, Linnett V, Sonksen J, Van Den Broeck T, Boschman G, Keenan DWJ, Scott J, Allen AJ, Phair G, Parker J, Bowett SA, Simpson AJ. Biomarker-guided antibiotic stewardship in suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAPrapid2): a randomised controlled trial and process evaluation. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2020, 8(2), 182-191.
  • Danilenko M, Stamp E, Stocken DD, Husain A, Zangarini M, Cranston A, Stones R, Sinclair N, Hodgson K, Bowett SA, Roblin D, Traversa S, Plummer R, Veal G, Langtry JAA, Ashworth A, Burn J, Rajan N. Targeting tropomyosin receptor kinase in cutaneous CYLD defective tumors (TRAC): A randomised placebo-controlled early phase trial with pegcantratinib. JAMA Dermatology 2018, 154(8), 913-921.
  • Pinder EM, Rostron AJ, Hellyer TP, Ruchaud-Sparagano MH, Scott J, Macfarlane JG, Wiscombe S, Widdrington JD, Roy AI, Linnett VC, Baudouin SV, Wright SE, Chadwick T, Fouweather T, Juss JK, Chilvers ER, Bowett SA, Parker J, McAuley DF, Conway Morris A, Simpson AJ. Randomised controlled trial of GM-CSF in critically ill patients with impaired neutrophil phagocytosis. Thorax 2018, 73(10), 918-925.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Pinder EM, Rostron AJ, Hellyer TP, Ruchaud-Sparagano MH, Scott J, Macfarlane JG, Wiscombe S, Widdrington JD, Allen T, Roy AI, Linnett VC, Baudouin SV, Wright SE, Chadwick T, Fouweather A, Bowett S, Parker J, McAuley DF, Morris AC, Simpson AJ. Randomised Controlled Trial Of Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor In Critically Ill Patients With Impaired Neutrophil Function. In: American Thoracic Society 2016 International Conference. 2016, San Francisco: American Thoracic Society.
  • Harrison SA, Cheek TR, Thwaites DT. Retinoic acid-induced changes in amino acid transport in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. In: Proceedings of the Physiological Society. 2006, University of Manchester.
  • Harrison SA, McArdle HJ, Waters LH. Regulation of P2X7 purinergic receptor protein expression by iron status in trophoblast cells. In: Proceedings of The Physiological Society. 2004, University of Cambridge.