Richard Stephens, co-Editor-in-Chief
Richard is a survivor of two cancers, a heart emergency and sundry other health challenges. He has been a carer for family members with both mental and physical health challenges. Richard has participated in four interventional and fifteen other research studies (including on Covid-19 and on aspects of Patient and Public Involvement in research).
Richard chaired the NCRI Consumer/Advocates Forum 2012-19, and again from 2023. He also chairs useMYdata, and chaired BBMRI-ERIC's Stakeholder Forum, 2018-22. In 25 years as a Patient Advocate he has worked with the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), the Health Research Authority (HRA), Cancer Research UK, Genomics England and with pharma, biotechs and Clinical Research Organizations. This has included sitting on funding committees, advisory bodies, trial management/steering groups, as well as working on individual studies or helping to set strategic priorities. He has co-authored over thirty research papers. His desire is that research outcomes should benefit patients and that participation should be made as easy as possible. He believes that including patients in designing, delivering and disseminating research will help those things happen.
Sophie Staniszewska, co-Editor-in-Chief
Professor Sophie Staniszewska leads the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) and Experiences of Care Research Programme at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, England. She focuses on developing the evidence base of PPIE for high quality practice. Sophie is founding Co-editor in Chief of the Springer Nature Journal, Research Involvement and Engagement.
Sophie leads and is involved with a number of studies focused on different aspects of PPIE and experiences of care and supervises PhD students working in these areas. She is a founding member of the International PPI Network which aims to create global understanding and synergy in patient and public involvement in health and social care research and has been part of the judging panel for the Nature Awards for Inclusive Research.
Sophie is the academic lead for public involvement for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands, PPIE for the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for Gastrointestinal Research, the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Genomics and Enabling Data, the NIHR West Midlands Evidence Synthesis Group and is PPIE co-lead For the Health Determinants Research Collaboration in Coventry, England.
