International Advisory Board

Shaun is a health services researcher interested in efficient trial design, particularly around recruitment and retention and the effective presentation of research evidence. He leads an initiative called Trial Forge (http://www.trialforge.org) that aims to be more systematic about how we generate and use research evidence in making trial design, conduct, analysis and reporting decisions.

Alan Montgomery is Professor of Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials, and Director of the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit, University of Nottingham. Alan works collaboratively to design, conduct, analyse and report large, multicentre randomised trials across a wide range of clinical areas and settings, and in methodological research to increase the evidence base for the efficient conduct of such trials.

Dr. David Moher is a senior scientist, clinical epidemiology program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where he directs the centre for journalology (publication science) (http://www.ohri.ca/journalology/ ). Dr. Moher is also a Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. Dr. Moher holds an MSc in epidemiology and PhD in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Moher is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Moher’s research program is focused on Open Science and meta-research.

Derick is Executive Director of Programmes at The Synergist.org. – a neutral, non-profit organization that facilitates multi-stakeholder collaborative programs to address complex societal challenges.

Derick’s background combines patient advocacy, translational research and multi-stakeholder collaboration at the National, EU- and Global levels and applies these experiences and expertise in his role in The Synergist. Derick believes in the power of united, collective patient voices and the central role of patients and their representative organisations in co-designing the future of healthcare and research. He has represented patients on a number of Committees and Boards at multiple levels.

From 2015-2024 Derick was Chief Executive of IPPOSI – the Irish Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science and Industry where he spearheaded a number of collaborative partnerships between patients, government, industry and academic science aimed at putting patients at the heart of health policy and innovation.  Under Derick’s inclusive leadership, IPPOSI has become the largest patient-led network in Ireland.

Derick is an Adjunct Professor in Clinical Research at Trinity College Dublin, holds a PhD in Molecular Medicine from University College Dublin and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology from the University of Galway.

Prof Katie Gillies research interests focus on the design and delivery of participant centred trials: from point of initial contact through to feeding back results to individuals. She leads research in the application of behavioural science to trials methodology. For example, framing problems of recruitment and retention as behaviours and exploring the opportunities to improve these aspects through the design of participant centred, theoretically informed, interventions. This work is multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder and involves using mixed methods approaches to develop, evaluate and implement interventions to support decision making in this context.

Prof Matthias Briel is a physician and clinical epidemiologist with a strong interest in clinical trial methodology and meta-epidemiological research. He is the founder and head of the Meta-Research Center Basel, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, and an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Canada. Matthias leads the Swiss clinical Trials Empirical Assessment & Methods (STEAM) Working Group with the aim to coordinate Swiss meta-research projects and tool development to make the planning and conduct of clinical trials more efficient and evidence-based.

Kerry Hood is Professor of Trials and the Director of the UKCRC Registered Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University. She is a Senior Research Leader and mentor for Health and Care Research Wales. Kerry’s specific methodological research interests are in trial design, outcome measurement and research inclusion with a particular focus on complex trials, whilst the topic areas she mainly focuses on are primary care, infections and learning disabilities. Kerry collaborates widely across the UK and Europe on research studies from a broad range of funders including NIHR, UKRI, HCRW, EU and industry. She has over 320 peer reviewed research publications and currently holds £35M of research grants. She is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Society for Academic Primary Care. Kerry co-leads the Trial Conduct Working Group of the MRC-NIHR Trial Methodology Research Partnership with Dr. Katie Gillies (University of Aberdeen).

Professor Allison Tong is a Principal Research Fellow at the Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. She holds an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Award and a Robinson Fellowship. She has experience in patient-centred outcomes research in chronic disease. Allison has an interest in patient involvement in research, including in the context of research priority setting, the development of core outcomes for research, and in the co-production of clinical trials. She co-founded and is on the Executive Committee of the global Standardised Outcomes in Nephrology (SONG) Initiative, which aims to establish consensus-based core outcomes across the spectrum of chronic kidney disease (www.songinitiative.org).

Paula Williamson is Professor of Biostatistics. She is Director of the MRC North West Hub for Trials Methodology Research (HTMR), Director of the Clinical Trials Research Centre (CTRC), and Head of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Liverpool. Paula chairs the University of Liverpool’s Health and Biomedical Informatics Group and is a member of the Farr Institute through HeRC North. Paula co-founded and has led the COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative since 2010. She was appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2014, gave the Bradford Hill Lecture in 2017, and is current Chair of the MRC HTMR Network.