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Rhiannon Evans  Professor; Associate Director, DECIPHer; Deputy Director, NIHR PHR Reviews Team

Professor Rhiannon Evans

(she/her)

Professor; Associate Director, DECIPHer; Deputy Director, NIHR PHR Reviews Team

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for Rhiannon Evans

Overview

Overview

I am a Professor in Social Science and Health, based at DECIPHer (Centre for Development, Evaluation, Complexity and Implementation in Public Health Improvement), School of Social Sciences. I am Associate Director at DECIPHer and  academic lead for the 'Health Inequities' research programme. I am due to commence the role of Deputy Director in April 2025 following the successful recommissioning of the centre through HCRW sustainability funding (2025-2030, £2.8M).

I have leadership roles across a range of other large-scale research infastructures. I am Deputy Director and Health Inquities Lead for the NIHR PHR Reviews Team (2024-2028, £1.5M). I am Academic Programme Lead for the Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC, 2024-2029, £5M). I am Co-Investigator for the HCRW catalyst research centre National Suicide and Self-harm Research Centre (2025-2030, £2.6M).

The substantive focus of my research is the improvement of mental health and wellbeing, in addition to the prevention of self-harm and suicide. I have a particular interest in the health inquities experienced by underserved populations, notably those who are care-experienced.

My methodological focus is on complex-systems informed systematic reviews, intervention development, process evaluation and qualitative methods. I have leading expertise in intervention adaptation for implementation in new contexts, having co-led NIHR-MRC funded methodological guidance.

 

Publication

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

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Research

Research Interests

  • Children and young people
  • Mental health, social and emotional learning, and wellbeing
  • Self-harm and suicide
  • Domestic violence
  • School-based intervention
  • Family-based intervention, notably in kinship care, foster care and residential care
  • Development, adaptation, evaluation and implementation of interventions
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Complex-systems informed, mixed-method systematic reviews
  • Global health (particularly in relation to intervention adaptation)

Recent Selected Research Funding (Infrastructure and Grants)

To date I have secured £33.5M in competitive funding in the capacity of Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator or Senior Academic Mentor. Selected recent grants include:

  • Suicide and Self-harm Research Centre Catalyst Funding, Health and Care Research Wales, (£2,600,000), 2025-2030.
  • DECIPHer Centre Sustainability Funding, Health and Care Research Wales, (£2,800,000), 2025-2030.
  • Rhondda Cynon Taf Health Determinants Research Collaboration (RCT-HDRC), NIHR, (£5,000,000), 2023-2028.
  • Supporting smokers attending for lung cancer screening in YORshire to QUIT (the YORQUIT study). Yorkshire Cancer Research, (£2,406,395), 2024-2028.
  • NIHR Public Health Reviews Team, NIHR-PHR, (£1, 500,000), 2024-2029.
  • Test and Learn. Centre for Homelessness Impact, (£611,190), 2023-2025.
  • “Feeling loved and appreciated”: a mixed methods study to examine care-experienced children and young people’s relationships and their association with mental health and wellbeing. Health and Care Research Wales (£400,000), 2023-2026 .
  • Evaluation of Step-Up / Step-Down, The Fostering Network in Wales, (£30,000), 2023-2024.
  • Piloting of a Namibian School Health Research Network (SHRN), Global Opportunities (£2,500), 2023.
  • Mental health provision for children and young people in schools and FE colleges (11-25 years) with experiences of care: Mixed-method study of implementation, acceptability, need and priority outcomes, Health and Care Research Wales (£284,638), 2022-2024.
  • Family-focused adolescent and lifelong health promotion (FLOURISH). Horizon, (£2,999,492), 2023-2026.
  • Commonwealth Fellowship / ERASMUS Fellowship in collaboration with University of Namibia and Ministry of Basic Education, Namibia, Commonwealth Fellowship / ERASMUS, 2022.
  • A co-produced qualitative exploration of young women’s perspectives on psychological distress in their population and priority actions for responding, NIHR-PHR. (£42,062), 2022.
  • Family group conferencing for children and families: Evaluation of implementation, context and effectiveness (Family VOICE), NIHR-PHR. (£1,173,396), 2021-2025.
  • Review of Statutory School and Community-Based Counselling Services and research and design of a pilot for primary aged children, Welsh Government. (£149,982), 2020-2021
  • Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), Heath and Care Research Wales. (£2.488,488), 2020-2025.
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing Interventions for Care-experienced Children and Young People: Systematic review of intervention theories, process, effect and equity, NIHR PHR (£277, 789). 2020-2022.
  • Family Recovery after Domestic Abuse (FReDA): A feasibility trial and nested process evaluation of a group based psychoeducational intervention for children exposed to domestic violence and abuse. NIHR PHR (£570,808), 2019-2021.
  • DECIPHer short course teaching Univeristy of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Newton Mobility Fund (£9,700), 2019.
  • HASTAG South Africa and Nepal, MRC Research to improve adolescent health in LMIC settings. (£504, 247), 2019-2020.
  • British Academy Rising Star Impact Award, British Academy (£11, 500), 2019-2020.
  • Evaluation Health Pathfinder, SafeLives (£200k), 2019-2020.
  • The Transdisciplinary Research for the Improvement of Youth Mental Public Health (TRIUMPH) Network, UKRI. (£1.2m), 2018-2020.
  • Secure Futures. Social Care Wales (£100,000), 2018-2019.
  • Adaptation of evidence-informed complex population health interventions for implementation and/or re-evaluation in new contexts. MRC Methodology Research Programme. (£320,261), 2018-2020.
  • What Works Centre for Children's Social Care, Department for Education. (£4.8m) 2017-2020.
  • Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research (NCPHWR), Health and Social care Research Wales. (£1.5m), 2018-2020.
  • A cluster randomised controlled trial of an intervention to improve the mental health support and training available to secondary school teachers – the WISE (Wellbeing in Secondary Education) project, NIHR. (£1.3m), 2015-2019.

 

 

Teaching

Current Teaching

Convenor: Evaluating Interventions in Complex Systems (MSc Social Policy)

Convenor: Evaluating Interventions in Complex Systems (Professional Doctorate)

Undergraduate Dissertation Supervision

Postgraduate Dissertation Supervision

PhD Supervision

DECIPHer Methodological Short Courses

I am convenor of the DECIPHer Intervention Adaptation short course (commenced 2022), and presenter for the Process Evaluation short course (which I led 2016-2019), both delivered at Cardiff University annually.

I have contributed to the leadership of bespoke versions of the short course programme nationally and internationally, delivering courses to the following: Welsh Government; Kings College London; HSC Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland; University of Aalborg, Denmark; University of Aarhus, Denmark; University of Southern Denmark, Denmark; University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; University of Namibia, Namibia; University of Galway, Ireland; University of Wageningen, Netherlands; University of Klagenfurt, Austria; and Canadian Institute for Collaborative Learning Institute in Evaluation, University of Waterloo, Canada.

 

Biography

Career

  • 2024-          : Professor, DECIPHer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • 2022 - 2024: Reader, DECIPHer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • 2017 - 2022: Senior Lecturer, DECIPHer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • 2015 - 2017: Research Fellow, DECIPHer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • 2014 - 2015: Research Associate, DECIPHer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • 2013 - 2014: Public Health Tutor (Lecturer Epidemiology), School of Medicine, Cardiff University

Education and Qualifications

  • Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
  • PhD in Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • MSc Social Science Research Methods, Cardiff University
  • MSc Public Policy, University of Bristol
  • BA Hons Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Oxford

Honours and awards

Honors

  • 2023 - 2024  Winston Churchill Fellow, The Churchill Fellowship (Preventing suicide among care-experienced children and young people in collaboration with South Korea and USA)
  • 2017              Dillwyn Medal Social Sciences, Business and Education, The Learned Society of Wales

Committees and reviewing

Funding Committees

  • 2024             NIHR PHR Funding Committee
  • 2020 - 2022  HCRW Social Care PhD Funding Panel (Deputy Chair)
  • 2019 - 2022  NIHR School for Social Care Research Funding Panel (External Methodological Expert)
  • 2019             ESRC Measuring Wellbeing Assessment Panel
  • 2018 - 2022  HCRW Social Care Funding Panel

Supervisions

PhD Capacity Development

I lead the delivery of the DECIPHer bespoke training programme as part of the £40m ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the area of children and young people's mental health, self-harm and suicide. I am particularly interested in the role of family in mental health outcomes, including the experience of being in care. I am keen to supervise PhDs with a focus on methodological innovation, especially in relation to the international adaptation of interventions for new contexts.

Current PhD Students

Sophie Borgia (ESRC) (2024-2027): The perspectives, experiences and perceived impacts of social and school policies in relation to the inclusion or marginalisation of gender minority students: A mixed methods case study in Wales

Dr Lucy Maddox (NIHR) (in collaboration with University of Bath and University of Birbeck) (2022-2027): Development of an intervention to reduce compassion fatigue in adolescent mental health ward staff

Bethan Pell (ESRC) (2021-2025): Theorising inter-generational violence between children and parents: A qualitative study in Wales

Sofie Langergaard (University of Aalborg) (in collaboration with University of Aalborg, Denmark) (2019-2025): Reducing social isolation among older people: An intervention study in municipal senior centres

Lorna Stabler (ESRC) (2019-2025): What are siblings’ lived experiences of providing kinship care? Identifying pathways to improving kinship care outcomes