2024-2026 Research Award Winners

Martin Rabey - International Association for the Study of Pain 2026 World Congress on Pain in Bangkok, Thailand from 26-30th October 2026

Karl Baraks - research projects at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the British Association of Spine Surgeons (BASS 2026), held at P&J Live in Aberdeen from 29 April 2026

Julie Perkins - report here - funding of Phd -From knowledge to practice: an exploration of how anatomy and physiology education informs confidence, and professional socialisation formation in UK newly qualified physiotherapists.

Paul MacDonald - Developing and Validating a Measurement Tool to Assess UK Healthcare Professionals’ Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Clinical Practices (KABP) Regarding Adults with Obesity

Martin Rabey - Co-design of the PROTECT FOR PAIN strengths-based profiling tool and pilot intervention for musculoskeletal pain.

Bradley Halliday - Exploring Language Used to Describe and Explain Pregnancy related Pelvic Girdle Pain: Perspectives of Birthing People and Physiotherapists

Colette Ridehalgh - International Association for the study of pain (IASP) 2026 World Congress on Pain, Bangkok, October 2026. I have been accepted to present two posters at the conference

Evangelos Almpanidis - 6th Europe Region Physiotherapy Congress, Madrid, November 2026. I will present part of my PhD research from University of Birmingham (Cervical Proprioception and Fear of Movement in Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) as an e-poster. I will also serve as Chair of the discussion session “Connecting Head, Neck, and Jaw: The Craniocervical Continuum”, contributing to scientific discussion and knowledge exchange around contemporary approaches to neck pain, headache and temporomandibular disorders.

These awards run from 1 November to 30 October each year.

The 2025-2026 awardees are:

Oliver Sell -  Uni of Herts

Scott Simpson -  Sheffield

Jonathan Lim -  UCL

Elizabeth Mears - QMUL

Max Sedgwick - Liverpool Hope

Konstantina Savvoulidou - European Pain Federation (EFIC) 2025,  April 24-26 in Lyon, France - report and photos here

Dan Nicholls - British Elbow & Shoulder Society Annual conference Brighton, June 2025 - podium presentation

No successful applicants

Paul MacDonald - Developing a healthcare professional tool to assess UK physiotherapists' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about adults with obesity. Read Paul's report and view his poster.

Colette Ridehalgh - Combined Physiotherapy interventions for people with lumbosacral radicular pain: exploring the fidelity of a best practice programme in London NHS Trusts

Vasileios Georgopoulos - To understand and improve the use of analgesic medicines in people with ongoing musculoskeletal pain (OMP) through a realist approach. It is structured around two sequential work packages - completing in 2027

Dylan Morrissey - What factors determine how often people with persistent musculoskeletal conditions need to see a physiotherapist? A mixed methods study

Oliver Sell - University of Herts
Rotator Cuff-Related Shoulder Pain: A survey exploring the current use of education by UK HCPC-registered physiotherapists.

Scott Simpson - Sheffield Hallam
How do researchers include and exclude participants when assessing exercise therapy in greater trochanteric pain syndrome? A Systematic Review.

March:

Hazel Rudder - PhD modules- report here

Yiduo Wang - IFOMPT 2024 - report here

September:

Natahsa Maher - report here - BESS 2025 Scientific Conference

Michail Arvanitidis - presenting at ISEK Conference, Japan - report here

Matthew Low - IFOMPT Conference

Jane Simmonds - use validated Spider questionnaire to complete a cluster analysis of the symptom profiles in people diagnosed with HSD/hEDS

Professor Lisa Roberts
The use of minimising language in musculoskeletal consultations - report

Caroline Alexander
Evangelos Almpanidis
Evdokia Billis
Laura Eccott - view Laura's report here
William Gregory
Gethin Lynch
Christopher McCarthy - report
Martin Rabey
Colette Ridehalgh
Pauline Kuithan - report

No successful applicants

Paul Riddle - University of Hertfordshire

Devon Amos - QMUL

Adwin See - UCL

Morten Ekornsaether - University of Brighton