Cardiff Met researcher announced as Health and Care Research Wales’ Senior Research Leader
A professor from Cardiff Metropolitan University has been appointed as one of Health and Care Research Wales’ Senior Research Leaders, providing leadership and acting as an ambassador and advocate for health and care research in Wales over the next three years.
Yvonne Wren is a Professor of Speech and Language Therapy at Cardiff Met and has been appointed alongside 20 individuals from academia and the NHS, all of whom demonstrate research leadership, excellence and impact both in Wales and internationally. Over the next three years they will play a vital role in developing the health and care research community in Wales.
Health and Care Research Wales’ Senior Research Leaders are among the most prominent and prestigious health and care researchers in the country. Those selected all have a track record of developing researchers and building Wales’ research capacity and capability, as well as integrating patient and public involvement in research.
Commenting on the appointment, Professor Yvonne Wren said: “It is an honour to be recognised as a Senior Research Leader by Health and Care Research Wales and also to represent Cardiff Metropolitan University amongst this group of prestigious research leaders in health and social care.
“Supporting research in Wales and enabling others to build a research career is a vital part of my role and this appointment will enable me to continue and extend this activity whilst also supporting involvement from those with lived experience of communication disorders, which is key to ensuring our research will lead to impact.”
Managed and supported by the Health and Care Research Wales Faculty, the Senior Research Leaders will continue dedicating time to participate in a range of Faculty’s activities, including funding panels, boards and committees.
Yvonne is also Director of Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit at North Bristol NHS Trust and Professor of Speech and Communication at the University of Bristol and was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist (RCSLT) in 2022.
The impact of Yvonne’s work, together with the teams that she leads, includes the development of a diagnostic pathway and core outcome set for children with speech sound disorder. She has also used data from a large-scale population study to identify risk factors for persistent speech disorder which has been used to guide clinical practice in speech and language therapy in Wales and included in clinical guidance provided by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. Yvonne is currently working with Welsh Government to develop a novel bilingual tool for the surveillance of early speech and language development for children growing up in Wales.
Gareth Cross, Deputy Director of Science, Research and Evidence at Welsh Government, said: “The panel was very impressed with the upward trajectory of the Welsh research environment; several of the panel members had sat on previous Senior Research Leader award panels and noted that great strides were being made in this respect. The breadth of applications was outstanding.
“The Senior Research Leaders’ expertise and dedication will be instrumental in fostering innovation, collaboration, and excellence within our research community, and we look forward to seeing the valuable contributions they will make over the next three years.”
Visit the Health and Care Research Wales website to see the full list of Senior Research Leaders.