EDIEventTraining Imperial CATO Leads Another Impactful NW London NMAHPP Research Symposium

On Wednesday, 15 October 2025, the Imperial Clinical Academic Training Office hosted the tenth NWL NMAHPP Research Symposium at the Royal Geographic Society in South Kensington. Dr Gemma Clunie and Dr Lina Johansson (Lead Clinical Academics for AHPs at Imperial College Healthcare Trust ICHT) chaired the event, which represents one of the largest of its kind for NMAHPPs nationally.

There were over 200 attendees from across the Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) and North West London, representing a broad range of NMAHPP clinicians and Clinical Research Practitioners at various stages of their clinical academic careers, from the research curious to senior researchers. There was also a research-invested patient partner in attendance.

Professor Waljit Dhillo, Dean of the NIHR, opened the Symposium as the keynote speaker, providing a whistlestop overview of NIHR funding opportunities for healthcare professionals to develop clinical academic careers. Following this, Adine Adonis, an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship holder and neurophysiotherapist presented her journey as a clinical-academic, entitled “I am my ancestor’s wildest dreams”, and held the audience to account for the imbalance and inequity that still exists for researchers from the global majority, whilst also celebrating her incredible and well-deserved success.

Sixty people submitted abstracts to the Symposium. The two top-scoring submissions were by Juliet Arday, a midwife with an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship, and Simon Arday, a mental health nurse currently completing an NIHR Predoctoral Fellowship. They each won a £100 voucher and gave oral presentations entitled:

• “I just want to be whole again”- Exploring the lived experiences of 29 survivors of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting following engagement with UK specialist FGM/C services: Qualitative stage of a PhD mixed methods study and on the day.
• What does safe, high-quality care in the acute hospital setting look like for service users receiving enhanced observation to manage agitated, confused, or distressed behaviours? A systematic review.

A further forty-four abstracts were selected for poster presentation. A “People’s Choice” poster award was chosen on the day, with a £50 prize going to Luke Wilkinson, a physiotherapist, for his abstract “Developing a new acute vestibular outcome measure”.  A final inclusion prize of £50 was awarded to Camelia Vladescu, a Clinical Research Practitioner, for her abstract “Could the gut microbiome be the key to better treatment in ITP?”

Attendees had the option to attend two of four research workshops:

• From Research to Innovation: Building Entrepreneurial Thinking in NMAHPP Practice (Dr Temitayo Magbagbeola)
• Crafting your professional narrative – ace your Narrative CV (Dr Inês Perpétuo)
• Starting to Write for Publication (Meg Sanders, Royal Literary Fund Fellow)
• Navigating Knowledge Mobilisation: research impact in practice (Professor Rowan Myron)

The Symposium was a true celebration and showcase of the breadth of research and improvement activities taking place within the NMAHPP community across NWL. It was a fantastic event, all thanks to the CATO team for their support and organisation. Roll on 2026!