Culture, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Impact Award 2025 winners announced

Pictured, from left to right: Niamh Molloy, Dr Naghmeh Nikkheslat, Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa, and Dr Susie Chandler.  

The Culture, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI) Impact Award 2025 winners have been announced. This award recognizes and celebrates the efforts of researchers supported by the NIHR Maudsley BRC who have made significant contributions to research and who promote equality, diversity, and inclusion in their work.

On Wednesday 4 December 2025, the 6 shortlisted entrants presented their work to an audience of staff and students at Denmark Hill Campus. Each presenter gave an overview of their paper and answered the audience’s questions. The Judging Panel marked their use of inclusive methodology, scientific rigour, impact, quality of writing, as well as their presentation.

The Judging Panel of the CEDI Impact Award 2025 has recognised the following journal articles as championing our CEDI values:

First prize

The first prize was awarded to the RE-STAR team. The paper was presented by Dr Susie Chandler (on behalf of the RE-STAR team), Postdoctoral Research Fellow & RE-STAR Programme Manager. The first author is Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the IoPPN and Lead of the Child Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Theme at the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre.

The judging panel said: “The RE-STAR team’s work provides an inspiring example of co-producing research with neurodivergent young people as integral members of the research team, setting a benchmark for participatory practice. Their approach offers a structured framework, embedding lived-experience voices throughout. It is already shaping national conversations on inclusion and generating award-winning dissemination co-led by young people themselves.”

The first prize winner, the RE-STAR team, was awarded £1,000 that can be used for training or conference attendance.

Dr Susie Chandler, on behalf of the wider team said:

“We are thrilled to receive this award. It has been a huge team effort and we are incredibly grateful to our Junior and Senior Youth Researchers for their transformative input and to our academic collaborators for their expertise, commitment and open minds! We are seeing the impact of this deep participatory approach, with new insights into adolescent mental health and interventions. We hope its impact will continue for years to come, as a reference model for inclusive mental health research.”

Second prize

Dr Naghmeh Nikkheslat, Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience won second prize for her paper in Biological Psychiatry.

The judging panel said “This internationally collaborative study demonstrates inclusive methodology through recruitment across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in Brazil, balanced sex representation, and culturally sensitive engagement. This study provides important evidence of sex-specific immune-metabolic mechanisms in adolescent depression and addresses the structural underrepresentation of females in biomedical research.”

Third prize

Niamh Molloy, NIHR Maudsley BRC PhD Student was awarded the third prize for her paper “Exploring the involvement of people with lived experience of mental disorders in co-developing outcome measures: a systematic review”

The judging panel said “The systematic review led by Niamh, undertaken as part of her current PhD funded by the NIHR Maudsley BRC, provides a much-needed examination of how lived experience is incorporated into the development of mental health outcome measures. Her study actively involved authors with lived experience throughout the project, and in her presentation, Niamh offered a clear discussion of the methodological and cultural challenges in co-production. The panel recognised the review’s impact, including its identification of critical gaps in co-developed outcome measures, its actionable recommendations, and its dissemination of findings across diverse stakeholder groups”.

Award Jury panel

The applications were scored independently by panel members according to the evaluation criteria. After scoring, the applications were ranked by average total score, and the shortlist was discussed by members of a Jury panel, including:

• Professor Grainne McAlonan, NIHR Maudsley BRC Director (Chair)
• Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa, Culture, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, NIHR Maudsley BRC
• Dr Juliana Onwumere, Chair, Building Race Equity and Diversity (BREaD) in Research
• Dr Franziska Denk, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead Pain and Addictions Theme, NIHR Maudsley BRC
• Dr Megan Earl, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead Child Mental Health & Neurodevelopmental Disorders Theme, NIHR Maudsley BRC
• Dr Ahmad Al Khleifat, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead Motor Neuron Disease Theme, NIHR Maudsley BRC
• Saskia Evans Perks, Lived Experience Ambassador, Research and Development Team, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa said:

“It was truly inspiring to hear such a rich range of presentations from across different BRC Themes and research groups. The day was a powerful reminder of the creativity and commitment driving efforts to advance equality, diversity and inclusion across our BRC. Thank you to everyone who submitted their applications, and to all who came to support colleagues and celebrate all the exceptional work.”

Read the papers 

Participatory translational science of neurodivergence: model for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism research | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core Edmund J.S. Sonuga-Barke, Susie Chandler, Steve Lukito, Myrofora Kakoulidou, Graham Moore, Niki Cooper, Maciej Matejko, Isabel Jackson, Beta Balwani, Tiegan Boyens, Dorian Poulton, Luke Harvey-Nguyen, Sylvan Baker and Georgia Pavlopoulou on behalf of the RE-STAR team* 

Sex-Specific Alterations of the Kynurenine Pathway in Association With Risk for and Remission of Depression in Adolescence - Biological Psychiatry Naghmeh Nikkheslat, Zuzanna Zajkowska, Cristina Legido-Quigley, Jin Xu, Pedro H. Manfro, Laila Souza, Rivka Pereira, Fernanda Rohrsetzer, Jader Piccin, Anna Viduani, Brandon A. Kohrt, Helen L. Fisher, Christian Kieling, and Valeria Mondelli 

Exploring the involvement of people with lived experience of mental disorders in co-developing outcome measures: a systematic review Niamh Molloy, MSca, Imogen Kilcoyne, BAa, Hannah Belcher, PhDb, Professor Til Wykes, DPhila