As the founder of Research FIRST, Kate has always been passionate about the need for a high quality, adaptive, customer led service that provides support and expertise for the delivery of research. Having worked in a health services research environment at the University for over 20 years, she has extensive experience in the delivery of studies using a range of different methodologies. In 2012 she obtained a PhD examining the role of GPs in the recruitment of patients to primary care based randomised controlled trials, an understanding of which facilitated the delivery of studies in a manner which maximises participant recruitment rates.
In 2016 she became the Head of Operations at the Institute of Translational Medicine and introduced the Research FIRST service. Under Kate’s guidance, Research FIRST has expanded rapidly and now supports a wide range of projects from across BHP and beyond.