FiMT Research Centre Conference Award Winners 2023!

The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) Research Centre is pleased to announce the results of our Conference Awards 2023. These awards are an important celebration of the exceptional quality and impact of the research that is being conducted in our field. It is a privilege to be able to spotlight those who have shown dedication to conducting pioneering research and generating evidence for the benefit of UK ex-Service personnel and their families.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination. We were lucky to choose from a brilliant group of finalists and are grateful to the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) Executive Team for selecting the winners for the Research Excellence Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises an individual who is a leader in their field and has dedicated their career to research progressing evidence, knowledge, and policy to the benefit of UK ex-Service personnel and their families. This year the winner of this award is Professor Anthony Bull.

Anthony Bull, Professor of Musculoskeletal Mechanics at Imperial College London, is a leading figure in the field of joint mechanics and their clinical applications, and his dedicated work has had wide-reaching benefits for Serving and ex-Service personnel.

Professor Bull is Director of Imperial’s Centre for Blast Injury Studies (CBIS), which aims to improve the mitigation, treatment, and rehabilitation of blast injuries. His work at CBIS has resulted in pioneering changes to policy and practice such as alterations to the design of military vehicles and floor mat policies, and improvements to the assessment and timing of amputations following heel injuries, consequently reducing unnecessary surgery and pain.

Professor Bull also co-leads the ADVANCE study with colleagues from the Ministry of Defence and King's College London. This ambitious and unique study investigates the long-term physical and psycho-social outcomes of battlefield casualties among UK Armed Forces personnel who served during the Afghanistan era. This study has far-reaching application for present and future Serving and ex-Service personnel who have experienced injury. Additionally, as director of the Musculoskeletal Medical Engineering Centre at Imperial, Professor Bull leads a research group in musculoskeletal dynamics, and provides underlying research technology support to other centre-associated investigators.

Professor Nicola Fear- Co-Director, FiMT Research Centre said “Anthony’s extensive work in this field has played an integral role both in the progression of the ADVANCE study and in the wider research area. I cannot think of a better recipient for this Award.”

Research Excellence Award

The Research Excellence Award recognises an individual who has, within the last year, produced markedly high-quality research focused on producing evidence and understanding of the experiences of UK ex-Service personnel and/or their families and key factors that affect the UK ex-Service personnel Community. We had the privilege of presenting this award to Dr Rebecca Randles.

Dr Rebecca Randles is a Senior Researcher at the Westminster Centre for Research in Veterans at the University of Chester and the lead researcher on the innovative "Where Are All the Veterans" project. This aimed to understand the most effective approach to raising ex-Service personnel registration in primary healthcare in novel ways. Through this project, in just six months, an additional 1,311 ex-Service personnel were identified across twelve primary health care practices raising registration by over 200%.

As a component of this project, Dr Randles authored a publication establishing prevalence of mental health disorders in ex-Service personnel using primary health care system coding. This is a novel approach and subsequently resulted in the collection of more valid and reliable data on the mental health and needs of the ex-Service personnel community. Notably, following publication, this paper remained the most-read article on BMJ Military Health for over twelve months.

Dr Randles said: “It is an honour to receive this award and for this incredibly important work to be recognised, with the identification of veterans we can better understand and support the needs of the Armed Forces community. Though further work is to be done, this is a positive step in the right direction. I’d like to thank Forces in Mind Trust for funding the work and Professor Alan Finnegan for his support as Principal Investigator.”

Professor Nicola Fear, Co-Director, FiMT Research Centre said: “Rebecca’s work has had an invaluable impact on the care of ex-Service personnel, and she is fully deserving of this recognition.”

Congratulations to both of our winners, we are proud to be able to recognise and reward their dedication and hard work. We look forward to the 2024 conference and awards!

Do you know someone who should be recognised for their hard work and exceptional quality research?  Check our social media later this year for details on when nominations will open for our 2024 conference!

Both awards were presented on 8th March 2023 at the FiMT Research Centre Conference. For more on the conference click here.