Research Community

The Centre for Military Women’s Research (CMWR)’s core mission is to inform and improve the well-being of women in the military and Veteran community through world-leading collaborative research and evaluation. Their work highlights women’s experiences, issues, and support needs and the centre is dedicated to fostering co-production with members of the military community and collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

Dr O’Malley is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Crime at University of York. She has a long-standing interest in military welfare issues generally, and has undertaken research with homeless Veterans and the Veteran charity housing sector. This includes ongoing work on evidence collection for Riverside Group’s development of a housing 'roadmap' for the Armed Forces Community. She is also the Chair of the Expert Advisory Board for the Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre. 

Dr Moira Bailey is a part time Lecturer, freelance Consultant and Researcher at the Robert Gordon University. Her interest in Veteran research came about as a result of her being a member of the Veteran family - her late husband was a Royal Navy Veteran who had mental helath issues arising from his service. Her son also is a Navy Veteran. She was recently a member of the team which produced an independent report commissioned in 2022 by the Office of Veterans’ Affairs to explore the potential of improving female Veterans' access to support services. She is currently working on two projects for different Veteran charities to produce in depth evaluation reports. Moira is also interested in pursing further research in the female Veteran space as well as exploring the experiences of Veterans' carers. 

Dr Steve Rolfe's research in relation to the Armed Forces Community has primarily been about Veterans' housing issues following transition, and the types of services which can assist Veterans to secure and maintain appropriate housing. This reflects his wider research interests in the importance of secure housing for wellbeing, and the ways in which public, private and third-sector actors can support positive housing outcomes.

Jon Ablett is a PhD student at the University of Bristol investigating the relationship between Veterans and welfare in the UK, specifically as it relates to homelessness welfare provision and services. Jon’s interests lie in housing theory and policy, especially as it relates to homelessness. He has assisted on research involving homeless Veterans with Dr Edward Kirton-Darling and Professor Helen Carr. This included research on local authorities in London and whether they were offering the correct legal information to homeless Veterans on their websites and within their relevant strategies. This also resulted in a conference in London where the results were disseminated among members from local authorities, the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committee and other interested parties. 

As a social scientist, Professor Zoe Morrison works to further the application of business and management studies to policy driven change programmes. Her work aims to inform leadership and human resource management theory through understanding individual experiences of change, including changing expectations of work, careers and employment, and adoption and implementation of technological innovation. Her interpretivist research agenda is curiosity inspired and theoretically driven, drawing on the sociology of work and organisations, and military and family sociologies. Zoe works in three areas: health, defence and carbon emissions mitigation, often referred to as decarbonisation.