School of Health Sciences

We have 4 interdisciplinary research themes hosting research groups:

Active living for health

• Active Living Research Group

Health needs

• Centre for Psychosocial Research in Cancer
• Child and Adolescent Research Group
• Long Term Conditions Research Group
• Ageing and Dementia Research Group

Fundamental care

• Bladder and Bowel management Research Group
• Medicines Management Research Group
• Skin Sensing Research Group

Health work

• Safety, Systems and Outcomes Research Group 
• Work Lives and Wellbeing Research Group

The leadership, resources and expertise within each theme enable high quality applied research to thrive. They nurture an active research community. We have named champions providing support to early career researchers, postgraduates and fellowship holders. We also have champions with dedicated roles for equality, diversity and inclusion, research ethics, open sciences, research outputs and impact.

Research groups provide interdisciplinary collaboration and support researchers at all levels. They offer mentoring, organise meetings and seminars, and host postgraduate research showcases. Additionally, they invite international academics to foster an intellectually stimulating environment. 

Research, funded by our National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Wessex, is integrated across the research themes. This extends our reach into the region through partnerships with NHS Trusts.

We develop innovative, evidence-based insights that inform health policy, health interventions, and health products. To do this, we use our world-class expertise in:

• healthcare policy, systems, and workforces 
• physical and psychosocial determinants of human health and disease across the life course
• medical and commercial device innovation
• cutting-edge methods and testing facilities in Thermosenselab and Pressure lab.

Our knowledge exchange is multi-scale, far reaching, and it spans sectors. Examples of our partnerships and enterprise work include:

• informing global corporates’ strategies on how to best design sport garments that promote physical activity in women
• advising users, carers, and healthcare professionals on continence products through the Continence Product Advisor website
• developing education resources to support patients and health care professionals, with Macmillan, Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK
• reporting to the House of Lords on the integration of primary and community care consultation

Connect with our research groups to explore how we can support you.

Our courses meet the development needs of professionals working in: 

• nursing
• midwifery
• allied health professions
• advanced clinical practice
• leadership roles

We support healthcare professionals in different stages of their careers. Our courses allow them to engage with education at the time that is right for them.

Our courses are varied and include options that are:

• skills based
• teaching based
• research based
• work based learning

For more information, search our CPD modules.

Fellowships

We welcome personal fellowships at any level, from pre-doctoral, doctoral and post-doctoral to Professor. We have processes in place to support applicants. This includes our Fellowship Working Group, which meets regularly to consider academic host support for applicants. Our senior clinical academic mentors and supervisors ensure submitted applications are competitive with national and international fellowship programmes. We’ll provide all the necessary support letters and costing advice in advance of application deadlines.

Successful applications enter our formal fellowship scheme, which offers:

• training
• access to the latest equipment
• protected time away from teaching and administration responsibilities
• PhD studentship and new research grant opportunities
• opportunities for permanent positions

Internal applicants can find further information about the application process on our internal web pages. External applicants can email the Fellowship Working Group via: Hsapp@soton.ac.uk

Postgraduate research

We encourage doctoral applicants from a range of healthcare background, psychologists and social scientists, including:

• nurses
• midwives
• physiotherapists
• occupational therapists
• podiatrists
• health scientists

In addition to advertised doctoral projects, we welcome enquiries from potential applicants wishing to develop their own project that are aligned to our research themes.

You will need to:

• develop an outline research proposal of 3 to 4 pages, aligned to our research themes
• identify a potential supervisor within the School’s research groups
• consider how you will fund your studies

Learn more about Health Sciences postgraduate research options.