The Make it Public campaign group

Matt Westmore is the Chief Executive of the Health Research Authority and co-chair of the campaign group. He has a background in research funding, policy and practice. He was previously a professor of enterprise with a focus on improving the relevance, transparency and quality of research at the University of Southampton and remains an adjunct Professor.

Matt has held roles with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) including as an executive director of the Evaluation Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC). He was also Interim Director of INVOLVE .

Matt has also worked internationally to help improve research funding practice around the world; this included being a founding member of the Ensuring Value in Research funders’ forum.

Derek Stewart is involved with research projects mainly in Ireland with the Health Research Board - Trials Methodology Research Network and Evidence Synthesis Ireland as a Strategic Advisor and is co-chair of the Make it Public campaign group.

Derek was treated successfully for throat cancer in 1995. A former teacher, Derek worked with young people experiencing difficulties in education in Glasgow then Nottinghamshire where he now lives. He subsequently became actively involved in numerous aspects of patient involvement and advocacy at a local, national and international level being the founder Chair of the Consumer Liaison Group for the National Cancer Research Institute.

In 2020 Derek was appointed Honorary Professor at National University of Ireland, Galway and in 2022 he joined the board of ISRCTN Registry.

Kieran Prior is currently Research Programme Manager in the Clinical Research team at Cancer Research UK (CRUK), where he is working with the CRUK CTU Network and the wider CRUK clinical research community to encourage and facilitate transparency in trials. As the UK's largest funder of academic clinical studies on cancer, CRUK is committed to ensuring our trials are registered and the results appropriately reported, so researchers and patients can gain the greatest possible insight from data generated – and maximise benefit for people affected by cancer.

Til Bruckner is a Research Fellow at the BIH QUEST Center, where his work focuses on improving clinical trial registration and reporting. He is also the founder of TranspariMED, a campaign that works to end evidence distortion in medicine. He previously worked for the AllTrials campaign and the anti-corruption group Transparency International. Til holds a PhD in political science from the University of Bristol, U.K.

Rachel Knowles is Programme Manager for Clinical Sciences at the Medical Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation) where she has responsibility for policies and guidance around clinical and health research ethics, including the use of patient data in research. Rachel developed MRC policy on clinical trials transparency and leads the annual compliance review. Her background is in public health medicine and paediatric epidemiology. She is a member of the Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group and a former member of Bloomsbury NHS Research Ethics Committee.

Amander Wellings is a neuro-diverse, lifelong family carer/service user, with wide experience of health and social care. She is a self employed patient and public involvement (PPI) consultant.

Amander holds an MA in Medical Sociology from the University of East Anglia and is a founding member of the Patient and Public Involvement in Research (PPIRes) Norfolk PPI group. She is alumni of the NIHR INVOLVE advisory group writing national PPI guidance and advising on PPI strategies. Amander has commented on numerous study designs, creating and co facilitating training, management, and steering groups, she has accumulated a vast 20 year experience in patient and public involvement.

Frances Mossie has been a Patient Research Ambassador/Champion (PRA/C) with Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for 7 years. Prior to retirement she held a role with Kent and Medway CRN as a Research Administrator and previously worked in NHS finance and clinic administration.

Frances has worked with the NIHR Patient and Public Involvement Team on Urgent Public Health Review Studies and has also been reviewing Patient Information Sheets for MTW-designed studies.

In April 2020 Frances was awarded the Patient Research Ambassador/Research Champion Individual Impact Award by the Kent, Surrey, Sussex Clinical Research Network (KSS CRN) together with a Team Award to the MTW Research and Development department. She has started her own study and is now working with a team looking at the experiences and the perceived impact of the NIHR Research Ambassador Initiative within the local region.

On a personal basis Frances is now healthy after being treated for cancer twice.

Elaine Williams is Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the National Institute for Health Research Evaluation and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC), part of the Wessex Institute.

Elaine leads the end-to-end delivery for a number of NIHR research programmes, supporting active dissemination and demonstrating impact. Elaine has had a long-standing involvement in transparency initiatives including leading the establishment of the NIHR Journals Library, and is currently supporting NIHR’s work on reducing bureaucracy.

Before joining the NIHR in 2008, Elaine worked for the commercial sector in strategic and management roles for a large international organisation. She then decided to change direction and trained as an occupational therapist, working within NHS acute medicine at Southampton General Hospital.

Jennifer Harris joined the The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) in September 2018. Her role is to lead on discovery, pre-clinical and clinical research policy, ensuring the UK is the best place to discover and develop new medicines and vaccines. She also champions the ABPI’s work on research transparency and patient and public involvement and engagement in research.

Before joining the ABPI, Jennifer worked on the independent review of the Mental Health Act at the Department of Health and Social Care, leading on evidence generation, patient and public engagement and work around person-centred care.

Catriona Manville is Director of Research Policy at the Association of Medical Research Charities. Catriona leads on responsible research funding and AMRC’s policy work to influence and improve the research and funding landscape in universities and the NHS, and to build networks across government and the life sciences sector. Within this remit, she champions the AMRC’s work on research transparency and patient and public involvement and engagement in research.

Before joining AMRC, Catriona was a research leader at RAND Europe, led a large portfolio of research evaluation and research into societal impact, with a particular focus on evaluating national assessment systems. During this time, Catriona was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Georgina is an experienced scientist with a commitment to maximising the benefits from research data. She currently works as a Senior Project Manager at Health Data Research Global, where she sits within a new team aiming to support data science in the Global South, that sits within the UK’s Health Data Institute. She previously led the development and implementation of the Wellcome clinical trial and data sharing policies, including transparency of results reporting and encouraging data sharing and re-use to maximise the impact of research on improving human health. She also brings experience of coordinating cross-funder working groups and advocating for aligned policies and guidance, including with the MRC, NIHR, and internationally.

Georgina has been involved in a range of activities and initiatives associated with the management and sharing of clinical data, and is a Board Director ISRCTN (UK clinical trial registry) (2019-present).