Dr Melanie Rees-Roberts
About
Dr Melanie Rees-Roberts is an applied health and care researcher with a strong track record of leading high-impact research across health and social care systems. Her work focuses on translating evidence into practice through large-scale, collaborative programmes, with particular expertise in implementation, research delivery, and capacity building. She has secured substantial research funding and plays a key role in shaping regional and national research infrastructure, working closely with academic, NHS, local government, and community partners to improve health outcomes.
Having conducted her PhD at Imperial College London, Melanie moved into clinical research in cancer and infectious disease including clinical trials working with work with academics, clinicians and multi-disciplinary health professionals within University, charity and NHS settings across public health, secondary, primary, community and social care sectors. In 2016 she joined CHSS as a Research Manager providing research support and contributing to mixed methods research set within the Kent commissioning landscape and project managing a national study to understand ‘Optimum Hospice at Home Services for End of Life Care’. In 2019, she moved role to work for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Kent Surrey Sussex where she still has a senior strategic leadership role alongside her research portfolio.
Currently researching
My current projects span population health across public health, primary and community care. Through a wide range of projects, I am interested in exploring health service delivery, patient self-management and circumstances impacting health at the individual and place level including wider determinants of health.
Background
Prior to joining CHSS in November 2016, I worked for a number of higher education and NHS organisations to support clinical research. After my PhD, I worked at Barts Health NHS Trust supporting the running of NIHR portfolio cancer clinical trials. In 2011, I moved to Imperial College London to run NIHR portfolio studies investigating new diagnostics tests for tuberculosis. In 2014, I became Research Manager for the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Respiratory Infections, a new partnership between Imperial College London and Public Health England created as a centre of excellence for public health research in Respiratory Infections.
Education
I undertook my undergraduate training in Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia before moving to Imperial College London to complete a PhD in HIV vaccine research.
Prizes
Excellence in General Practice Pharmacy award at the 8th edition of the Clinical Pharmacy Congress, June 2019, ExCeL London.
Healthcare Pioneers award during the AF Association Global AF Aware Week annual event hosted at the Palace of Westminster, London, UK, November 2018
Research interests
Dr Rees-Roberts’ research interests include data-informed population health, the development and evaluation of service delivery models for improvement, and addressing health inequalities through system-level approaches. She has a particular interest in using linked data and real-world evidence to inform policy and practice, and in co-producing research with communities and stakeholders to ensure meaningful and sustainable impact.
Dr Melanie Rees-Roberts is a health services researcher based at the Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent, whose work sits at the intersection of public health, primary care, and applied clinical research, with a strong focus on improving healthcare delivery, patient outcomes, and service design within real-world NHS contexts. Her research outputs centre on clinical and applied intervention research, encompassing mental health, data-informed population health, and the organisation and delivery of care, reflecting a broad commitment to evidence generation that supports effective, scalable health interventions. Across this body of work, she demonstrates a methodological emphasis on mixed and qualitative approaches, stakeholder engagement, and co-production with patients and practitioners, alongside the integration of data-driven and epidemiological methods. Overall, her research profile is characterised by a translational orientation, bridging academic research with frontline healthcare practice, particularly in community settings, mental health recovery, and preventative health interventions.
Supervision
Dr Rees-Roberts provides masters level supervision for research dissertations for the Year in Data programme and the MSc in Applied Health and Care Research.
She is currently supervising 1 PhD student.
Research Projects and Awards
Funding Awards
(>£2.2m last 5 years)
Sep 23 – Grant preparation for full trial of isometric exercise for hypertension. Alan Squirrel Foundation £27,180.
May 23 – Dementia capacity building fellowship funding. Kent and Medway Partnership Trust. £28,379.
Oct 22 – DE-eECALation Of Opioids Post-surgical DischargE – The DESCALE Study. NIHR ARC KSS – £74,985
Oct 22 – Dementia capacity building funding. NIHR ARC KSS. £455,767
Mar 22 (Lead) – Kent and Medway Primary Care Research. Kent and Medway ICB. £297,042.
Feb 22 (Lead) – Exploring Mental Health and Wellbeing Needs of Young Migrant Women. NIHR PHR. £46,908.
Oct 21 – Mental Health capacity building £750,000
Mar 21 (Co-Lead) – Unlocking data to inform public health policy and practice. NIHR PHR. £177,973.40.
May 20 (Co-app) – Public Health Research System to Support Local Government. NIHR PHR. £48,248.
Jan 20 (Co-app) – Isometric exercise intervention for Stage 1 hypertension. NIHR RfPB. 275,880.
Jan 2019 (Co-applicant) – Optimising the depression pathway utilising digital technology. Innovate UK. £815,506.
Jan 2018 (Co-app) – Embedding research into Encompass, an NHS England Five Year Forward, New Models of Care, Vanguard site. £164,000