NIHR Moorfields BRC researchers appointed
as Senior Investigators

Professors Alastair Denniston and Pearse Keane and have been newly appointed as NIHR Senior Investigators, while Professor Jugnoo Rahi has been re-appointed for a second four-year term.

With the new appointments announced today, the NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre now has four current members of this prestigious group, following the appointment of Prof. Sobha Sivaprasad in 2022. This represents a major achievement for our BRC and recognises the key role our research leaders have nationally. 

Senior Investigators are the most prominent and accomplished researchers within the NIHR community, taking the lead in people-based health research. They make up the NIHR College of Senior Investigators and are also members of the NIHR Academy. 

Nationally, there are only around 200 NIHR Senior Investigators at any one time, with only about 30 new appointments made every year, so competition to join the group is fierce. We therefore commend all three professors for their successful applications this year, based on their outstanding careers as clinician researchers in ophthalmology. 

Each Senior Investigator receives a discretionary award of £20,000 a year for four years to fund activities that support research. Their role is to guide the development of research capacity and to act as mentors, helping other NIHR researchers progress in their careers. Senior Investigator status can be awarded for up to two terms.

Senior Investigator appointments are made by the Department of Health and Social Care on the recommendation of an expert committee led by Professors Marion Walker (overall Chair) and Sue Ziebland (co-Chair). The selection criteria include the quality and quantity of internationally recognised research, its relevance to and engagement with patients and the public, and its impact on healthcare.

Our NIHR Senior Investigators gave the following reactions to their new appointments:

Prof. Alastair Denniston

“I am really delighted to receive this NIHR Senior Investigator award and celebrate the work of our teams between Moorfields Eye Hospital and University Hospitals Birmingham. We are excited to see the increasing development of artificial intelligence (A.I.) health technologies, helping NHS patients through faster diagnosis, new forms of disease-screening and more efficient services. However, we need to ensure that these advances benefit everybody. Our research is helping developers create more effective, inclusive technologies, as well as enabling regulators and the NHS transform the care of patients through access to new technologies that are safe, effective and work for everybody.”

Prof. Pearse Keane 

“The NIHR has been central to my career as a clinical academic. I’m originally from Ireland and was working in the USA in 2008 when I first learnt about the NIHR and the amazing clinical academic pathways it offered. This led me to switch my career focus from the USA to the UK, taking up first an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer post at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, and then an NIHR Clinician Scientist award. Support from the NIHR has been absolutely essential to allowing me to produce cutting edge research in A.I. for healthcare. It is one of the greatest honours of my career, and I feel immensely proud, to be given an NIHR Senior Investigator award.”

Prof. Jugnoo Rahi

“I am honoured that work undertaken with colleagues at UCL and throughout the UK to improve outcomes for children with eye conditions or vision impairment has been recognised by this second NIHR Senior Investigator. award. I hope the award will help shine a spotlight on this complex, vulnerable population, and stimulate research that improves prevention, treatment, service provision and policies to address their needs.”

Brief biographies

Professor Alastair Denniston

Prof. Denniston is a consultant ophthalmologist at University Hospitals Birmingham and a Professor at the University of Birmingham, as well as being part of the NIHR Moorfields BRC. He leads research into the use of health data research and A.I. to improve patient care in the real world. He has a particular focus on the evaluation and regulation of these advanced technologies to ensure that they are effective, safe and equitable.

• Prof. Denniston’s academic profile

Professor Pearse Keane

Prof. Keane is a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Professor of Artificial Medical Intelligence at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, as well as being Co-Lead for the NIHR Moorfields BRC Imaging, Visual Assessment and Digital Innovation Theme and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. He specialises in applied ophthalmic research, with a particular interest in retinal imaging and new technologies, and leads a multi-disciplinary clinical research group focusing on developing and implementing A.I. systems in healthcare.

• Prof. Keane’s academic profile

Professor Jugnoo Rahi

Prof. Rahi is an ophthalmologist and an epidemiologist. As well as being part of the NIHR Moorfields BRC, she is an honorary consultant ophthalmologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), and Professor of Ophthalmic Epidemiology at the UCL GOS Institute of Child Health and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, and a member of the NIHR GOSH BRC. Jugnoo leads the multi-disciplinary Vision and Eyes Group based at GOS ICH, whose interests are in visual health, eye disease and visual impairment in childhood and in the early-life origins of and life-course influences on chronic complex eye conditions and visual health in adult life. She is reappointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator. 

• Prof. Rahi’s academic profile

Find out more

• NIHR appoints new Senior Investigators distributed across England (NIHR website, 1 March 2023)

• About the role of Senior Investigators (NIHR website)

• Prof. Sobha Sivaprasad appointed as NIHR Senior Investigator (March 2022)