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James Lewis

Professor James Lewis

(he/him)

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for James Lewis

Overview

I am a professor in the School of Social Sciences and the Centre for the Development, Evaluation, Complexity and Implementation in Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer). I serve on DECIPHer's Executive Management team and I am a co-investigator on our HCRW Sustainability Funding 2025-30 (£2.9m), and lead on our International work. I am also a co-investigator on our Centre for Adult Social Care (HCRW funded, £3m), and the Local Policy and Innovation Partnership for Rural Wales (ESRC funded, £5m). My research is focused on better understanding public health challenges and designing and evaluating relevant interventions.

From March 2018 to September 2023 I was the director of Cardiff University's Y Lab - the Public Services Innovation Lab for Wales. At Y Lab we supported and promoted experimentation and innovation in public services in Wales, and conducted research on the hows and whys of public services innovation. We brought in £12m of funding, including £10m to Cardiff University. We were honoured to win Cardiff University’s Celebrating Excellence Award in the Excellence in Innovation and Enterprise category in 2022.

Prior to this, I worked as a statistician and epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine for 12 years. I conducted research in global health, focusing on pragmatic evaluations of health system innovations across a range of disease areas and geographies. I lived in Johannesburg for seven years.

Publication

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

1995

Erthyglau

Research

I have been an investigator on grants worth £29m, including £6.5m as principal investigator and £3.7m for international research.

Grant funding

2025-30, DECIPHer Sustainability Infrastructure Funding, £2.9m, HCRW

2024-26, Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales - the Local Policy and Innovation Partnership for Rural Wales, £5m, ESRC

2024-29, Centre for Adult social care REsearch (CARE), £3m, HCRW

2020-24, Cardiff Capital Region Challenge Fund, £1.2m, Cardiff Capital Region City Deal

2020-23, Infuse: Innovative Future Services in the Cardiff Capital Region, £5.6m, Welsh European Funding Office

2021-22, Keeping Wales Safe: COVID behaviours, £300k, Welsh Government

2022, Understanding user needs for support for innovation in social care in Wales, £10k, Social Care Wales

2022, Being Black in Academia: Curation of a Black History Month events series that builds on an ESRC-funded PhD into Black Faculty Experience within Higher Education, £3k, ESRC-AHRC IAA

2019-21, Health,Arts,Research,People (HARP): innovation sprints to increase use of arts for wellbeing in Wales, £650k, Arts Council of Wales

2019-20, Impact of gender on the innovation funding process, £12k, Nesta

2019-20, Co-producing sustainable development through Rule of Law: a Lesotho case-study, £20k, ESRC IAA

2017-20, Innovate to Save: supporting public service teams to improve services & generate cashable savings, £6.5m, Welsh Government

2017-19, iSaathiya: Evaluating Peer Educator Component of India's National Adolescent Health Programme, £660k, MRC and DfID

2016-18, Cluster randomised trial of medication monitors for tuberculosis medication adherence in China, US$629k, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2013-17, Adherence to, and diagnostic outcomes, from e-assessment tool for child health in Burkina Faso, US$670k, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2013-15, INHIBIT-TB: Assessment of household TB preventive therapy and CD4 testing in South Africa, £60k, Sanofi-Aventis

2012-18, Community Randomised Evaluation of Socioeconomic Intervention to Prevent Tuberculosis in Lima, Peru, £1.9m, Joint Global Health Trials consortium and the World Bank

Teaching

Management

I am the teaching team lead for our Social Policy programme

Current Teaching

Knowing the Social World: Online and Offline Surveys (Year 2, Module Convenor)

Evaluating Social Policy, Practice and Innovation (Year 2, Module Convenor)

Quantitative Research Methods (MSc, Module Convenor)

Evaluation: Developing and Evaluating Interventions in Complex Social Systems (Professional Doctorate, Module Convenor)

Undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation supervisor

Recent teaching

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (Year 1, Module Convener 2023-4)

Evaluation: Developing and Evaluating Interventions in Complex Social Systems (MSc, Teaching 2023-4)

Biography

Education

2001 –2005: PhD in Epidemiology at Imperial College London. “Behavioural, demographic and social risk factors for HIV infection in rural Zimbabwe.” Received MRC funding.

1999 –2000: MSc in Applied Statistics at the University of Oxford. Grade: Distinction. Gutierrez Toscano prize for joint top result. Received EPSRC funding.

1996 – 1999: BA (Hons) in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Class: 2:1.

Honours and awards

2022 - won Cardiff University’s Celebrating Excellence Award in the Excellence in Innovation and Enterprise category

Professional memberships

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

Academic positions

2016 – 2018: Associate Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Based in London.

2013 – 2018: Deputy Director, Centre for Evaluation, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

2013 – 2016: Senior Lecturer, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Based in London.

2012 – 2013: Lecturer, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Based in London.

2007 – 2012: Lecturer, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Based at Aurum Institute, Johannesburg.

2005 – 2007: Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Based at Aurum Institute, Johannesburg.

2001: Research assistant, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra.

2000 – 2001: Research assistant, Centre for Socioeconomic Research, Welsh School of Pharmacy, University of Wales, Cardiff.

Committees and reviewing

Current work

Committee member reviewing grants for the NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research scheme

Committee member conducting interviews for the Wellcome Trust Career Development Award scheme

Member of the School Board for the School of Social Sciences

Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Steering Group for the Wales Innovation Network

Member of the Welsh Government's Innovation Advisory Council for Wales 

Statistical reviewer for the Lancet journals

Member of two Trial Steering Committees - one for Johns Hopkins University and one for Exeter University 

Recent work

Chaired two grant interview panels and one bid review panel for the ESRC in 2022-3

Grant reviewer and/or panel member for the NIHR, ESRC, Wellcome Trust, MRC, UKRI and the EDCTP

I have been the statistical member on four completed Trial Steering Committees - three for Johns Hopkins University and one for Oxford University

 

 

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD and Professional Doctorate students in the areas of public health evaluations, epidemiology, quantitative public health, public services innovation and social innovation.

Current supervision

Nicole Gelfert

Nicole Gelfert

Past projects

  • Kavi Velen's PhD on "GOOD to GREAT: Strategies to improve the detection of TB amongst household contacts in South Africa"
  • Cara O'Connor's PhD on "Mobile Phone Adherence Support for HIV Patients in Manila, Philippines"
  • Becky Parish's professional doctorate on "Informed Choice or Informed Voice? A consideration of the impact of proposed NHS service developments on divided communities"

I was a statistical advisor for six PhD students at LSHTM, a role similar to that of co-supervisor.

Contact Details

Email LewisJ78@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 79874
Campuses sbarc|spark, Room 03.14, Maindy Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ
Glamorgan Building, Room 2.41A, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA

External profiles