About
Dr Clarissa Giebel is Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Population Health at the University of Liverpool, and Older Adult Subtheme Lead at the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast. She is leading the Institute's Dementia Research Group and national and international research on inequalities in dementia, including the European INTERDEM Taskforce on Inequalities in Dementia and the new ESRC/NIHR/Alzheimer's Society 5-year EquaDem Network Plus. In 2019, she set up the successful and growing public-facing Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum, which enables knowledge and networking on dementia for different stakeholder groups. She is also the host of The Ageing Scientist podcast, and has jointly with her group co-produced and launched the Dementia Inequalities Game - an educational game to learn about dementia inequalities. She has published 120 papers, including three policy briefings, in the field.
As part of her work of engaging with social care organisations, she is leading the North West Coast Living Lab in Ageing & Dementia, which was set up in 2024. The NWC Living Lab in Ageing & Dementia is based on the successful Dutch original model from Maastricht University, and forms part of the Maastricht Living Labs across several countries. This innovative model embeds researchers in social care organisations to build capacity for the social care workforce and academics, and to co-produce research from the bottom up. The NWC Living Lab launched with 6 social care member organisations to start with.
She is the Principal Investigator on a number of dementia and health inequalities projects, including funded studies by the ESRC Newton Fund (Understanding the impact of political and stressful life events on the mental health of older Colombians); Alzheimer's Society (health inequalities in dementia care in the UK and the Netherlands); NIHR (Unmet mental health needs in paid and unpaid carers); and the ODA Seedfund (exploring the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on the mental health of older adults in Uganda, Colombia, and India), and Co-I on the new NIHR Dementia & Neurodegeneration Policy Research Unit led by QMUL and Exeter.
Dr Giebel is currently accepting PhD students and DClin Trainees in dementia and ageing, in psychology, social care, and public health.
Prizes or Honours
- Innovation of the Year Award - The Dementia Inequalities Game (University of Liverpool Staff Awards 2025, 2025)
- Alzheimer's Society Emerging Leaders Award (Alzheimer's Society, 2024)
- Outstanding Contributions to Public Engagement (University of Liverpool Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, 2024)