The EACH-B programme of research has contributed to the career progression of its team members by providing space, time and support for members to develop their own related projects. These projects have involved the acquisition of a diverse range of skills in the field of research and public engagement, as well as several PhD projects.
Four team members have completed PhDs as part of the EACH-B programme – Taylor Rose, Sarah Shaw, Sara Simao and Sarah Jenner. They used a range of methods to explore in greater detail how young people can be better supported to live healthier lives. The titles of these theses are listed in Publications. Following completion of her PhD, Taylor Rose went on to take up a job as a scientific writer based in London. Sarah Shaw is now working as a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge, to pursue postdoctoral research using novel technologies to examine the influence of the food environment on the diets of young people. Sara Simao left the University of Southampton to take up a role with the University of Manchester and is now employed as a research fellow on a cancer screening trial. Sarah Jenner is near to completion of her PhD but has already achieved work of such novelty and substance that she has been awarded a permanent lectureship at the University of Southampton in the School of Health Sciences and is carrying out postdoctoral research, extending her PhD work based on use of AI-assisted analysis of textual data.
Other members of the team who have used their experience working on the EACH-B programme as a launch pad for their careers include Sofia Strommer, who left the group in 2022 to become the first behavioural scientist employed by Oura, an international enterprise who manufacture finger rings that contain sensors to monitor health behaviours. Sofia now leads a team of behavioural scientists at Oura. Christina Vogel, whose research into food environment policy led to her being offered a chair at City University, London, where she is now Acting Director of the Centre for Food Policy. Millie Barrett, a public health nutritionist who managed the EACH-B trial for the first 2 years is now a senior research fellow at the Centre for Food Policy, at City University, where she works with Professor Vogel on evaluating the implementation of food policy that supports young mothers – the Healthy Start initiative. Judit Varkonyi-Sepp, while working as our programme manager for the entire course of the programme, completed her stage 2 Health Psychologist qualification and secured herself the first-ever Health Psychology post in our local NHS trust working in an acute setting with the Clinical Psychology team. Laila Khawaja, a sociologist who ran the trial for the final year, has taken up a research fellow post with NIHR ARC Wessex, working on research into management of long-term conditions. Investment by the NIHR in the EACH-B programme has in this way produced a cadre of high-quality, well-trained researchers who have gone on to take up academic positions across the UK.
During the course of the EACH-B programme, three of the team have been awarded personal chairs. Kath Woods-Townsend is now Professor of Science Education and Engagement, and Mary Barker Professor of Psychology and Behavioural Science at the University of Southampton. Christina Vogel is now Professor of Food Policy at City University, London.
The team as a whole has developed significant capacity in participatory research methods such that they are regularly approached to advise on community participatory action research projects across the country. As part of this, they have also become expert in using creative methods for collecting and disseminating data. The expertise contained in the team is the basis for the UK Community of Practice we have established to support research with young people. The EACH-B programme has not only increased scientific capacity, however. One of the major outputs of the programme has been the development and delivery of the Southampton NxtGen Researcher Training Programme, which equips young people with a range of basic research skills to allow them to identify issues, generate RQs based on those issues, collect and analyse data to answer those questions and then to disseminate finding and advocate for change. We have found that training young people in research gives them an evidence base to their calls for change, which makes them more credible, less easy for those in power to dismiss and generally more confident about their place in the world. We are in the process of finalising the material for this programme and getting it accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health so that this capacity-building programme is available to all young people.