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13 Jan 2025
Leadership In Research Series: An Interview with Professor Penny Cook

Over the next month, we will be speaking to academic leaders across Greater Manchester to highlight the importance of academic leadership in research and innovation. The series will get their take on current areas of focus and explore examples of collaboration and impact.
Here, we spoke with Professor Penny Cook, who recently spent 9 months as Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research and Enterprise at the University of Salford, and will soon resume her role as Associate Dean for Research & Innovation in the School of Health and Society.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your career to date, and your current role at the university?
My research career began quite early — I went straight from school to university and then directly into a PhD, which I completed by the age of 24. That’s quite unusual, and it meant that I started my research career without ever really leaving the university environment.
Interestingly, I’ve changed disciplines over time. I started out working in ecology, studying animal behaviour, but eventually made a shift towards health-related behaviour, which led me to public health. My public health career really took off at Liverpool John Moores University, where I spent 14 years working on topics related to public health risks, such as sexual behaviour and HIV monitoring in the North West. Later, I focused on alcohol research. I’ve always believed in grounding research in real-world issues, which is something I try to emphasise in my work.
In 2012, I joined the University of Salford and within a year was promoted to Professor. Salford has been a fantastic place for me to grow both in teaching and research. My work on alcohol harm led to a high-profile community intervention project called Communities in Charge of Alcohol (CICA), funded by the NIHR.
Around 2008, I developed an interest in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). At the time, not many people, even in alcohol harm research, knew much about it, which only motivated me to dive deeper. I saw the injustice for children affected by FASD — many don’t get diagnosed or have access to interventions. Salford supported my research into this, funding PhD students and allowing me to build what is now the largest group studying FASD in Europe.
More recently, I became the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at the School of Health and Society, and in April, I stepped into the role of Interim Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at the University of Salford.
How have your experiences influenced your vision in your current leadership role?
A key factor has been the multidisciplinary nature of public health. Our field brings together people from diverse backgrounds — medics, scientists, and others with different experiences. This multidisciplinary aspect has helped me not just in public health but also in my role overseeing research across the university.
Public health, by nature, often requires collaboration across fields. For example, a community intervention might require expertise in art to engage the public, or business knowledge to assess economic sustainability. My experience working across disciplines has been invaluable in my current leadership roles. It’s something that is becoming more important in research funding as well.
Additionally, the inclusion of lived experiences is crucial in making research impactful. It’s not just about working across academic disciplines but also with people directly affected by the issues we are studying.
Looking ahead, what do you see as the key research strengths and opportunities for collaboration at the University of Salford?
A key area of strength is ssits within our Centre for Human Movement and Rehabilitation, where we addresses important global health challenges that limit mobility, are associated with pain, and can prevent people from living independently. This includes, for example, the design of novel prosthetic devices.
The award winning Kidney Information Network is a joint venture between University of Salford, NHS trusts and kidney patients in response to patient demand to develop a mechanism to enable them to talk to other patients and share experiences. The Kidney Information Network is now growing nationally, and we’re exploring ways to expand that model to other health conditions. We’ve also got significant strengths in young people’s mental health, where we’ve begun collaborating with Manchester Metropolitan University.
I’d like to highlight our work on FASD. It’s the largest research group in Europe and Greater Manchester has been a fantastic place to do this work. Our collaboration with the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership really brought attention to the issue. They were the first to fund a UK prevalence study on FASD, and their leadership on this topic has been key in raising awareness. There’s a lot of potential to expand this research further into health and social care, as well as integrating it into our curriculum for students across disciplines like nursing, midwifery, and policing.
How do collaborations— whether with clinicians, industry, or patients —benefit the research at your university?
Collaboration is absolutely fundamental. For example, our prosthetics group has mature relationships with industry, and they’ve funded PhD students to attend the Paralympics to study high-end prosthetic devices in action. Similarly, the doctoral training school has strong industry links.
In my own research on FASD, my collaboration with Consultant Psychiatrist Prof Raja Mukherjee has been crucial. Clinical insights help ensure that our research is practical and relevant, and Raja’s connections with professional groups have helped raise awareness about FASD.
Working with patients and the public is also vital. They bring lived experience to the table, helping to shape the research in meaningful ways. In FASD, the advocacy group National Organisation for FASD has been incredibly valuable in amplifying the voices of families affected by the condition. They’ve also helped promote our research findings to a wider audience, which is often more powerful coming from an external organisation than from us as researchers.
It’s clear that collaboration is integral to your work. Can you share any examples of how these partnerships have directly influenced or enhanced your research?
Definitely. The Kidney Information Network (KIN) is a great example. It’s not just a research project; it’s a network where patients collaborate with clinicians. The infrastructure we’ve built has allowed patients and clinicians to share knowledge, which has been key to its success.
In FASD research, our work with the advocacy group has been invaluable. They not only share the experiences of families but also help lobby for changes at the policy level. For instance, when we published our prevalence study, they created an infographic that helped draw attention to the findings and framed them within the broader context of action on FASD. It’s those kinds of partnerships that amplify the impact of our work.
That’s a great example of how collaboration can enhance research. Finally, why do you believe research impact is so important, and do you have any tips for ensuring research leads to impact?
Impact is crucial because research should aim to make things better. In health-related research, the goal is often to improve lives, and in public health, we aim to address issues further upstream to prevent negative outcomes down the line. That’s what drives us at Salford.
A key tip is to focus on co-production from the start. Collaborating with clinicians, patients, and advocacy groups early in the research process ensures that the work is relevant and can have a real-world impact. These partners can also help promote the findings and reach decision-makers in ways that researchers alone might struggle with.
It’s also important to be patient. Creating impact takes time. For example, with our FASD intervention, we began working on it in 2018, and now, six years later, we’re preparing to write bids for a definitive trial. Research often takes a long time to translate into practice, so sustained commitment is key.
Read more about Penny’s work here:
Penny Cook | University of Salford
Centre for Applied Health Research | University of Salford
Centre for Human Movement and Rehabilitation | University of Salford