Your support is helping to transform child health

Four exceptional scientists share how the Academy has supported them to improve child health across the UK and beyond.

We spoke with four outstanding scientists working to improve child health, including our Prioritising early childhood to promote the nation’s health, wellbeing and prosperity report co-chair, Professor Helen Minnis FMedSci, and three researchers who have benefitted from Academy programmes supported by your donations. Their work, which will improve the wellbeing of children across the UK and beyond, is made possible thanks to the generosity of individual supporters like you.

Professor Helen Minnis, Professor Ian Kelleher, Dr Niina Kolehmainen, and Professor Chris Gale share the highlights from their current projects, and how the Academy has supported them to drive forward innovation in child health research.

Helen brings to light a national child health crisis

Professor Helen Minnis FMedSci is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow and was elected to the Academy’s Fellowship in 2022. With clinical and research expertise in the psychiatric problems of abused and neglected children, she has built up the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Group in Glasgow to an internationally renowned Centre of Excellence.

Helen co-chaired the Academy’s recent report on child health, which brought to light the growing health crisis affecting UK children under five and provided examples of effective, evidence-based interventions that can be made to improve lifelong health. It identified important challenges including plunging vaccination rates, poor dental health, and an unprecedented demand for children’s mental health services. Following widespread engagement with the report, Helen is hopeful it will give young children a voice otherwise unavailable to them.

Helen said, "I’m just so grateful that the Academy is focused on this area because there is a massive evidence gap. I would like to ask you all to continue to support research on child health because there’s so much that we learned through pulling together this report, but there’s so much more that we need to know."

Ian works globally to transform youth mental health

Professor Ian Kelleher is Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh and a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. Ian was awarded an Academy Professorship last year, supporting him to establish a new team at the University of Edinburgh who will perform critical research into the prediction and prevention of mental illness in children and young people. Through collaboration with partners in Scandinavia, his team will harness the power of world-leading health registers and drive innovation in youth mental health.

Ian’s research aims to improve the early identification of risk for severe mental illness during childhood and adolescence, when the brain is more plastic and interventions are more likely to be effective. He emphasised the evidence captured in his study of health register data, showing the possibility of preventing serious mental illness through earlier intervention: "There are opportunities to alter whole life trajectories that we haven’t previously seen in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)."

Ian is the first psychiatrist to receive an Academy Professorship, representing a landmark in the promotion of mental health research. He noted, "There is a much broader impact of receiving this award. It recognises that mental illness is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and it supports a parity of esteem between mental and physical health. I’m honoured to have this, and I’m honoured to see a development in the recognised importance of mental health. I hope you will continue to advance this into the future."

Niina revolutionises early prevention of long-term health conditions

Dr Niina Kolehmainen is Reader in Allied Child Health at Newcastle University, and Lead for Children’s Health and Wellbeing at The Innovation Observatory. Niina is an allied health scientist who hopes to revolutionise the early prevention of long-term health conditions through her research into early life physical activity, sleep, and stress. She is a graduate of the Academy’s FLIER leadership programme, which champions working across disciplines and sectors to solve society’s biggest health challenges.

Niina attributes her ambitious research approach to what she learned during the FLIER programme, which empowered her to think differently and lead with confidence: "When my research team plateaued and didn’t know where to progress next, I was able to lead that team and bring them together in a different way. It’s just amazing and it would never have happened without FLIER."

For Niina, the support of the Academy has been the key to a successful career and driving forward her research: "What’s so special about the Academy is that it not only gave me the inspiration and encouragement to pursue my ambitions, but it also showed me how to turn that ambition into a reality."

Chris strives for the best possible newborn care

Professor Chris Gale is Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College London and a Consultant Neonatologist. Through his research, Chris aims to advance neonatal population health, improving neonatal care through large clinical trials, observational research, and population-level surveillance. With a particular emphasis on increasing parent and patient involvement, his ambition is to ensure continual improvements in the quality of care for the most fragile of patients.

Chris was awarded an Academy Starter Grant in 2013. These grants cover the costs of research and provide Clinical Lecturers with the vital support they need, enabling Chris to switch his research focus to address some of the fundamental clinical practice questions facing neonatology.

Also an Academy FLIER graduate, Chris sees the programme as "the crowning jewel in the support the Academy has given me." Describing his experiences, he said, "it thrust me together with a whole host of incredible people, who helped me to see that we should be striving to break down barriers and do things differently, and we should be working across sectors collaboratively. There is so much expertise outside of my sphere of clinical medicine, and I would not have been able to do the things I have gone on to do without the support of the FLIER programme."

Supporting the Academy

The generosity of individuals is vital in our mission to champion clinical scientists like Helen, Ian, Niina, and Chris, as they perform crucial medical research that will benefit people everywhere. We are most grateful to all our donors who support our work. If you are inspired by these stories, we hope you will consider supporting the Academy of Medical Sciences with a donation today.