R&I Annual Conference 2026

Following a career in retail management, Richard has worked in the NHS since 2009 in a variety of roles supporting the delivery of clinical trials, and the development of commercial research and innovation. He joined The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2016 as a Research and Innovation Manager responsible for industry liaison and research performance management. In early 2020 he was seconded to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Coordinating Centre to manage the new National Patient Recruitment Centre Programme and took up his current post in April 2022.

Richard manages a team of Business Development and Innovation Managers who support innovation activity across the Trust, including delivery of the ‘Innovation Pop Up’, an exciting new development at the Trust to focus on translational research and innovation approaches to test bed new ideas and develop collaborations with industry, clinical innovators and entrepreneurs.

The Innovation Pop Up is the first of three phases towards a health innovation campus centred at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI). It aims to:

• Support the development of an innovation culture in LTHT ready for our new digital hospitals
• Be a “safe space” away from clinical areas where clinical staff can work collaboratively with businesses and others involved with innovation
• Be a test bed for the evaluation and piloting of new technologies
• Support local economic growth and promote the regional skills and talent agenda Address some of the barriers to innovation in the NHS
• Scale in phases towards the LGI site redevelopment

Contact: [email protected] or [email protected].

Magnus joined Leeds Teaching Hospitals in September 2023, and has held Executive Medical Director and Deputy Chief Executive roles at both Burton Hospitals NHS Trust and the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton.

In 2022 he became Interim Chief Executive Officer of University Hospitals of Derby and Burton before becoming Chief Medical Officer of independent healthcare provider Newson Health.

Prior to his executive roles, Magnus was a Consultant and Clinical Director in Emergency Medicine for 10 years. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of Nottingham Medical School.

Rachel Harrison has nearly 30 years’ experience as a paediatric nurse, initially in general paediatrics and Paediatric Intensive Care, before moving into research in 2003. Currently Rachel is the Lead Nurse for Children and Young People at LTHT overseeing the management and leadership of the NIHR Leeds CRF at Leeds Children’s Hospital site and Children’s Research workforce delivery team. Currently the portfolio has approximately 150 active studies and clinical trials relating to 25 different paediatric specialist areas recruiting up to 1000 children, young people and their families to research on an annual basis. Rachel completed a PhD whilst working alongside a National Metabolic Bone Disease clinical service before taking up her current role as Lead Nurse for Children and Young People at LTHT.

Chris is an experienced Operational Manager, Business Strategist and Business Development and Innovation professional with a focus on the translation and commercialisation of innovative healthtech research. He has worked in a variety of positions within the medical device and Advanced Therapy

sectors with a focus on the development of translational R&D programmes led by clinicians, academics and SME’s.

As Director of Operations for Research and Innovation at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Chris oversees the strategic development and operational management of Research and Innovation across one of the largest NHS Trusts in the UK. In this role, Chris is responsible for the strategic development and management of research at the Trust which at any one time supports >900 live clinical research projects and which hosts major national infrastructures including the NIHR Clinical Research Facility, NIHR Biomedical Research Facility and National Innovation Pathology Co-operative. The embedded Innovation team supports both innovators in the Trust and businesses who are looking to work with NHS organisations to develop and evaluate innovative healthtech products across a broad spectrum of clinical disciplines. This growing portfolio of “innovation” projects includes the collaborative development of a wide range of medical devices, diagnostics and digital/AI tools aimed at improving the health of patients.

Chris has a strong belief in open innovation and collaboration to develop solutions to problems and in developing business and reimbursement strategies in parallel with strong scientific proof-of-concept data at an early stage to facilitate the development of investable propositions which link to real-life challenges within the NHS.

With extensive experience in the North’s health, tech and digital sectors, Deb has been instrumental in shaping strategies for regional growth. She has advised businesses on artificial intelligence adoption, supported academic research at Leeds Beckett University, and contributed to national economic discussions as a Forum member at the Productivity Institute.

As Executive Director at Leeds Digital, Deb championed the social and economic growth of the region’s digital community. Prior to joining SGI, she founded Hey Innovation and served as Head of Innovation at Bruntwood SciTech, where she developed and implemented innovation strategies across the UK.

At SGI, Deb focuses on connecting businesses with opportunities across the Group’s developments, strengthening relationships with universities, NHS trusts, and other key stakeholders. Her work centres on flagship projects such as Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park and The Old Medical School in Leeds, aiming to create dynamic, innovation-focused communities.

Hanif’s expertise is in chronic illness management, focussing on patient experiences and evaluating health professionals.

As a mixed methods researcher, Hanif has had the opportunity to work on some exciting and innovative research studies, from exploring taboos around reporting and seeking help for epilepsy to evaluating specialist cardiology nurses and exploring barriers to behaviour change in adults at risk of developing heart disease.

Hanif is an active volunteer member of the Leeds – Bradford Ethics Committee and an expert reviewer for several specialist health journals.

Through his research experience over the last 25 years, Hanif has learned that harnessing the unique knowledge that patients/the public possess is essential if we are to conduct research that is meaningful and ultimately successful.

Dr Paul Jones joined the Trust in November 2019. Paul has held senior roles across the public and private sector including Chief Technology Officer for the NHS in England and Group CIO of Serco.

Paul’s background is rooted in technology with a BSc and PhD in Computer Science and in 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science for his services to health technology and the NHS. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Chartered IT Professional.

Paul leads a team of more than 400 digital, IT and information specialists, delivering vital services across the Trust to support exceptional patient care. This includes development of the Trust’s electronic patient record, applications to support specialist functions, reporting and information insight, data quality and coding and records management. The team is also responsible for information governance and core IT services covering devices, cyber, networks, data centres, service desk and service management.

In 2023, Paul was elected Chair of the CIO Advisory Panel, which includes 12 CIOs from various NHS Trusts and regional organisations, elected by peers from across the country. The panel is responsible for setting direction for the CIO Network, providing an independent, nationally elected voice for local NHS digital leaders.

Sarah Kent is the Head of Nursing for Research & Innovation at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since Jan 2024.

Sarah qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1991 and began her research career as a research nurse in 2000 at York Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust establishing a research delivery team and trials portfolio across multiple disease sites at Scarborough Hospital. She became the Lead Research Nurse for the Humber & Yorkshire Coast Cancer Research Network in 2002.

Sarah joined LTHT in April 2017 as Senior Sister for the Clinical Research Facility in Bexley Wing at SJUH, before moving into central R&I as a Lead Nurse in 2021 and then successfully applying to be the Head of Nursing for Research.

Sarah’s focus is to ensure that research is delivered to consistently high standards whilst maintaining a stable workforce and increasing opportunities for our patients to be involved in research. She is also driven to strengthen the R&I CSU and work collaboratively with all other CSU’s in the Trust to support and integrate the 7 Commitments.

Dr Sarah Mackie is an academic rheumatologist based in Leeds, UK. Her research interests are giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). She is first author of the 2020 British Society for Rheumatology guideline on giant cell arteritis. Her team won a 2022 British Society for Rheumatology Best Practice award for their GCA diagnostic pathway. She is Co-Chair of the Outcome Measures in PMR Working Group which has produced a Core Domain Set for clinical trials in PMR. She is Chief Investigator of the STERLING-PMR trial.

Kate leads one of the UK’s biggest partnerships of its kind: Leeds Academic Health Partnership.

The Partnership comprises the city’s three main universities and NHS organisations, Leeds City Council, Leeds City College, third sector and regional organisations.

Reporting to their respective chief executives and vice-chancellors at board level, Kate leads the mission to bring partners together help solve the city’s hardest health challenges. The team identifies and brokers new opportunities for transforming health and care which could be best achieved in partnership.

Through its new brand Health Innovation Leeds, Kate oversees the city’s first unified, marketing approach to position Leeds nationally and internationally as a leading health innovation hub and attract inward investment.

In these ways, with a focus on tackling inequality and helping boost economic growth, the Partnership supports Leeds ambition to be the best city by 2030 in which to live and work.

Kate’s passion for health and care transformation spans her career to date. She has managed complex change in this sector through her senior roles at Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, and healthcare consulting firms Finnamore and GE Healthcare Partners.

Kate is also a co-opted member of the Leeds City College Board.

Ryan Mathew is A/Professor and Consultant Neurosurgeon in Leeds, subspecialising in oncology, endoscopic and awake surgery. His research portfolio spans tumour biology and preclinical modelling through to FiH clinical translation; focusing on local therapeutic delivery and technology (immersive, machine learning/AI, tumour visualisation, and brain computer interfaces). He co-founded the UKLGG Network and spin-out Assemblify. He has numerous publications, is an internationally invited speaker and teaching faculty, an MHRA Clinical Assessor, TessaJowell NTA Core Committee, SBNS AC Translational Science Lead, CAG member (MRC, ARIA), peer-reviews for a number of journals and funders, and has > £8M in grant funding (PI/Co-I).

Dr Helen Radford is the Associate Director of Operations: Research at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research, University of Leeds.

Helen is a Registered General Nurse with over 20 years’ experience in designing, conducting, and delivering academic and commercial clinical research studies.

Helen has held clinical research positions in the NHS (Research Nurse, Clinical Trials Manager, Operational & Scientific Manager, NIHR Leeds MIC Director of Operations, NIHR Leeds CRF Manager), Industry (Senior Project Manager Phase I-IIA) and Higher Educational Institutes (Project Manager/Lead Nurse). In the NHS, Helen has extensive experience in clinical drug development studies (Phase I-IV: First in Human, proof of concept, singular and multiple ascending dose designs), interventional medical devices and observational studies (Phase II-IV) and co-developed the first research delivery teams at St Gemma’s Hospice and Pain Management Services at LTHT. Helen has clinical research experience in oncology, palliative care, diabetes, musculoskeletal diseases, neurosurgery, neurology, pain management, renal medicine, and infection.

In 2015, Helen completed her Biomedical Science PhD which investigated individual’s clinical response to codeine, an analgesic drug which is reliant on biotransformation by the CYP2D6 enzyme to the active compound morphine for analgesic efficacy. Through a series of research studies, she developed a biomedical model to predict long term codeine response using genotyping and measuring urine codeine metabolites to enable healthcare professionals to objectively assess CYP2D6 function at the point of care and in essence provide a personalised treatment plan.

At a national level, Helen is the Lead for Strategic Leadership with the UK Clinical Research Facilities (CRF) Network, which provides a gateway for research funders to access cutting edge CRFs across the UK and Ireland. She is a manuscript reviewer for Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, the official journal of the International Neuromodulation Society. Her research collaborations have resulted in 16 co-authored publications disseminating independent research in leading professional journals plus she has presented 15 abstracts at national and international conferences.

Dil Rathore, a Biomedical Scientist/ Pathology Technology and Innovation Lead at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals. Dil is also an alumnus of the Healthcare Entrepreneurial Exchange Programme (HEEP) and he has developed a new histopathology tracking system.

Dil received a small proof of concept grant of £10,000 from the Leeds Hospital Charity Innovation Fund to build a model to create a direct digital pathology experience across the healthcare ecosystem. The idea became a reality as the system was built, tested, and refined.

The initial work at the Innovation Pop Up together with the innovation partner, Medipex, gave Dil the freedom to develop his product further. He is now proceeding with patent filing.

The support from Innovation Pop Up provided Dil with the evidence to build a compelling case for an application to the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund. He recently received confirmation of funding of £250,000 to trial the histopathology research on a larger scale.

Beverley previously worked in academic research before joining the NHS for 10 years as a Clinical Scientist specialising in Immunology. After leaving the NHS she supported a translational research team at the University of Leeds as a Laboratory Manager before moving to the private sector, supporting clinical trials. More recently, Beverley was part of the delivery team for the NIHR In Vitro Diagnostic Cooperative before returning to the NHS as Business Development and Innovation Manager in March 2023. The Business Development and Innovation Team support innovation activity across the Trust, based out of the ‘Innovation Pop Up’ at the LGI. The Innovation Pop Up is an area where companies can connect and work collaboratively with the Trust’s clinicians and innovation team, to transform the latest advances in science, research, and technology into real world solutions.

Dr Denise Ross is Head of Healthcare Professions Academic Development at LTHT. She holds a Visiting Research Fellow position within the Academic Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Leeds.

Denise is a physiotherapist by profession and has worked in Leeds since 2005 as a clinical specialist within complex rehabilitation.

Denise’s goals are to develop and support a recognised clinical academic career pathway for the Healthcare Professions at LTHT; so that we can truly embed research into the high-quality patient care that all of us provide.

Dr Tan is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Leeds Hospitals NHS Trust, an Associate Professor at the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Leeds, and a Consultant Rheumatologist at Chapel Allerton Hospital and the NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre. Dr Tan’s main research interests include using imaging techniques such as MRI and ultrasound to improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of arthritis and muscle conditions. Dr Tan was awarded Young Investigator Awards from the British Society for Rheumatology and the Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology, and was one of the first NIHR Clinical Lecturers, and subsequently held the NIHR Clinical Scientist Award.

Prior to this, Dr Tan was the Clinical Lead for the Musculoskeletal Specialty Group at the Yorkshire and Humber CRN, and the Research and Innovation Lead for Chapel Allerton Hospital CSU. She recently stepped down as the co-lead for Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine Postgraduate Research Studies after 10 years, and currently co-leads the Movement and Physical Activity Network at the University of Leeds and is on the steering committee of the Empower Leeds Women Network. Dr Tan is also the Editor-in-Chief for Rheumatology Advances in Practice, an official journal of the British Society for Rheumatology. Dr Tan is an advocate for physical activity in promoting health and runs every day, volunteers as a Social Media Ambassador for parkrun UK, and is an active member of the medical community on X (formerly twitter) @DrAiLynTan.

Dr Chris Twelves is Professor of Clinical Cancer Pharmacology and Oncology and Director of the NIHR Leeds Clinical Research Facility.

He is a medical oncologist with a particular interest in new drug development and clinical pharmacology; his clinical practice has been in colorectal and breast cancer.

After training as an oncologist in London he was Senior Lecturer, then Reader, in Medical Oncology in Glasgow at the Beatson Oncology Centre before taking up his current post at the University of Leeds and St James’s Institute of Oncology.

Prof Twelves has been a member of the Cancer Research UK New Agents Committee, Chair of the New Drug Development Group of the EORTC and was Scientific Chair of the Berlin 2009 ECCO-ESMO 34 meeting. He has been involved in the development of several important new agents including capecitabine, and eribulin. Professor Twelves has a particular interest in early clinical trials and pharmacokinetics including intra-tumoural drug pharmacokinetics.

Professor Twelves has published over 200 papers in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet and Journal of Clinical Oncology and spoken at numerous international meetings. He has also edited, or contributed to, several books including one on Phase I clinical trials and another on the design of Phase II clinical trials.

Karl Ward is a Registered Nurse with a clinical background in anaesthetics, surgical, and critical care nursing, and over 17 years of experience in clinical research within both NHS and academic settings. He has worked across various clinical disciplines, including early-phase drug studies, surgical and medical device trials, and the design and development of clinical trials from inception to delivery.

Since 2018, Karl has served as the Lead Nurse for Research and Innovation at LTHT, where he developed, implemented, and evaluated the Research and Innovation Academy (RA). This trust-wide specialist training and education service supports the training, education, and workforce development of staff involved in research across LTHT. The RA has quickly gained a local, regional, and national reputation for excellence in clinical research training, receiving multiple awards and securing national and regional funding to develop, deliver, and evaluate its innovative research education and training model.

Karl has held various senior roles in operational clinical research delivery, training, education, and workforce development. In 2021, he was seconded to the NIHR Coordinating Centre to lead the development of the national Researcher Credentials Programme. He currently leads the UKCRFN Leaders Programme, serves as a Senior Leadership Programme Trainer, and holds an NIHR Nursing and Midwifery Senior Research Leader grant.