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.

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 data-driven and 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.

Her areas of work sit 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 pragmatic, clinical and applied intervention research, encompassing mental health, data-informed population health, and the organisation and delivery of care. She has expertise in pragmatic clinical trials, data science, mixed and qualitative approaches, stakeholder engagement, and co-production with patients and practitioners.

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 (last 5 years)

Sep 25 (Co-app) – Applied Research Collaboration Kent Surrey Sussex recommission. NIHR. £10.6 million

Oct-24 (Co-app) – RCT of isometric exercise (IE) in adults with hypertension. NIHR RfPB. £499,937.

Jul-24 (Lead) – Exploring NHS front door data for predictive modelling and outcomes. NIHR DSE award £89,749.

Mar-24 (Co-app) – Social Care Capacity Building Programme. ARC KSS. £258,360.

Mar-24 (Co-app) – Social Care Capacity Building Programme National Peer Cohort. NIHR ARC KSS. £199,230.

Dec-23 (Co-app) – National Priority Programme for Adult Social Care and Social Work. NIHR ARC KSS. £970,000.

Sep-23 (Lead) – Preparation for full trial of isometric exercise for hypertension. Alan Squirrel Foundation £27,180.

May-23 (Lead) – Dementia capacity building fellowship funding. Kent and Medway Partnership Trust. £28,379.

Oct-22 (Co-app) – DE-eECALation Of Opioids Post-surgical DischargE – DESCALE Study. NIHR ARC KSS – £74,985

Oct-22 (Co-app) – 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 (Co-app) – Mental Health capacity building. NIHR ARC KSS. £750,000.

Mar-21 (Co-Lead) – Unlocking data to inform public health policy and practice. NIHR PHR. £177,973. 

Oct-20 (Co-app) – National Priority Programme for Adult Social Care and Social Work. NIHR ARC KSS. £1,750,000.