Winners announced for CAHPR Scotland-GCU ReaCH Fellowships 2024

New CAHPR Scotland-GCU ReaCH Fellowships are being offered to AHPs

Glasgow Caledonian University’s School of Health and Life Sciences (SHLS) Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) and the Council for Allied Health Professions Research (CAHPR) Scotland are delighted to announce the winners of three unique fellowships.

The new Fellows will work with world-leading experts within ReaCH and receive £1,000 towards research costs. The Fellows programme was designed to give allied health professionals (AHPs) the chance to get involved in research and help develop their research careers.

The first award winner is Katie Roddick, an occupational therapist, who will work with Professor Simon Hunter, ReaCH Child and Adolescent Health Research Group Lead, on a project looking at young people’s experience of traumatic brain injury.

The second goes to Andrew Gilmore, a podiatrist, who will work with Professor Gordon Ramage, ReaCH Safeguarding Health through Infection Prevention (SHIP) Research Group Lead, on a project looking at molecular technologies to evaluate diabetic wounds.

The third winner is Morgyn Sneddon, a radiographer, who will work with Professor Suzanne Hagen, ReaCH Ageing Well Research Group Co-Lead, on a project looking at muscle tissue in pelvic floor dysfunction.

SHLS Reader in Musculoskeletal Health Dr David Hamilton, who will soon be taking over as CAHPR Scotland Consortium Lead and is coordinating the programme for the two organisations, said: “We are delighted to make these awards to Scottish AHPs to work in complex research areas away from their usual professional boundaries. We are really looking forward to working with them and seeing where these projects can go.”

CAHPR Scotland Consortium Lead Dr Chris Seenan, who is also a SHLS Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, said: "CAHPR is the voice of 14 allied health professions in developing and promoting research, and we are delighted at the success of this initiative in directly supporting that. We were thrilled with the quality of submissions to this programme from across Scotland and are very pleased to award these fellowships to three outstanding candidates.”

Professor Frederike van Wijck, Co-Director of ReaCH, said: “The broad scope of the projects being undertaken highlights the range of our research within ReaCH. As the largest rehabilitation-focused research centre in Scotland, we look forward to supporting our new Fellows to explore new areas they have not had a chance to investigate, help them build their confidence and develop partnerships to further their own research careers.”