Ageing and Resilience Research Group

We investigate how people adapt to stress, change, and adversity across the life course - and how we can strengthen resilience through evidence, interventions, and systems change.

The Ageing and Resilience Research Group uses mixed methodologies (including qualitative, quantitative, longitudinal, psychometrics, linguistic analysis, secondary data analysis) to explore how people adapt to and manage significant sources of stress or trauma across a range of life course contexts, including (but not limited to): unpaid carers and health and social care professionals; chronic physical and mental health conditions; neurodiversity; stigma; bereavement and widowhood, as well as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

The group aims to identify both risk and protective factors of resilience (e.g. psychological characteristics, social relationships, health and social care systems) so that we can better understand what helps individuals during challenging times.

The group has particular strengths in research dissemination, knowledge exchange, and public engagement outputs and events.

What we're known for

• Life course resilience (risk and protective factors) 
• Caregiver resilience
• Stress/trauma adaptation in health and social care contexts
• Mixed-methods and longitudinal approaches
• Knowledge exchange and public engagement 

How we work

We are committed to:

• Collaborative and co-produced research with underrepresented and marginalised communities. 
• Generating real-world impact on policy, practice, and commercial outcomes, including development of novel tools and measurement scales
• Active knowledge exchange and partnership working at national and international levels.
• Building research capacity through training undergraduate and postgraduate students, research assistants, and interns. 

Opportunities

We welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, visiting scholars, and interns whose interests align with our work on ageing, resilience, and co-produced research. Please get in touch with a brief outline of your interests, relevant experience, and how you see your work fitting with the group.

Work with us

We work in genuine partnership with communities, services, and policymakers, and welcome collaborations that lead to real-world impact, new tools, and improved practice. 

Media requests

We are available to provide expert comment, case studies, and access to recent research findings. For media enquiries relating to the themes of our group, please contact the Group Lead, Dr Warren Donnellan.

Who funds our work?

Our work is supported by a mix of public, charitable and partner funding, including:

• Alzheimer’s Research UK
• Alzheimer’s Society
• The British Academy
• British Psychological Society
• Innovate UK
• Leverhulme Trust
• Marie Curie
• Medical Research Foundation
• NIHR
• Physiotherapy Research Foundation.