Professor Nathan Davies

Profile

I joined QMUL in 2024 as Co-Lead for the Centre for Psychiatry and Mental Health after 13 years at UCL where I was Director for the Centre for Ageing Population Studies and Institutional Lead for the NIHR Research Support Service.

I am Co-Director of the Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Centre for Integrated Dementia Care (I-DTC). The I-DTC is a £3.1 million, 8-year centre led by QMUL, working with our partners LSE, Leeds Beckett University, University of Plymouth, and UCL to train 29 PhD students to be the future dementia research leaders. I have been awarded over £33 million in research grants including two post-doctoral fellowships and over 130 publications.

I am an Associate Editor for Age and Ageing and sit on several national committees including NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) Funding Committee, NIHR Three School's Dementia Programme Commissioning Panel and programme oversight committee NIHR Three Schools Programme. I am an Honorary Professor at UCL and hold an honorary position at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Research

Research Interests:

My research background is in ageing and applied health and social care research. My main research is focussed on people with dementia and neurodegenerative conditions, across the themes: 1) Managing clinical complexity including palliative and end of life care; 2) Communication and decision making; 3) Digital health; and 4) Enhancement of co-production and applied qualitative research methods. Across these four themes is a cross cutting element of research on under-represented populations.

Publications

How do people living with dementia perceive eating and drinking difficulties? A qualitative study.

Enteral tube feeding for people with severe dementia

 A systematic review of internet-based interventions aimed at supporting family caregivers of people with dementia.

Defining end of life in dementia: A systematic review

 A co-design process developing heuristics for practitioners providing end of life care for people with dementia

Supervision

I am primary supervisor for:

• Alice Burnand, Managing delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD), in primary and social care, NIHR 3 Schools Dementia Programme (2024-2027).
• Sonja Jacobs, Improving post-discharge feeding support for parents of premature infants, NIHR DCAF (2024-2028).
• Pushpa Nair, Exploring person-centred care, care environments and care planning for people with dementia from South Asian backgrounds, Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellowship (2022-2026).
• Emily Spencer, Advance care planning in dementia: Improving GP consultations and development of a support programme for general practitioners (Consult-GP), Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Fellowship (2022-2026).
• Narin Aker, Health inequalities for people from minority ethnic groups living with dementia towards the end of life (HINTED), NIHR School for Primary Care Research PhD studentship (2021-2024).

I am subsidiary supervisor for:

• Ayesha Dar, How can primary and social care providers best support distance caregivers of people with dementia? NIHR 3 Schools Dementia Programme (2024-2027).
• Danielle Nimmons, Exploring the primary care identification and management of anxiety and depression in people living with dementia, Alzheimer’s Society Clinical Fellowship (2023-2026).
• Jen Pigott, Supporting the needs of people with Parkinson’s Disease and Cognitive Impairment, NIHR/ Rosetrees Trust (2020-2025).
• Juliette Gillam, Implementing the EMBED-Care eHealth intervention to improve palliative dementia care: Design and feasibility test, ESRC (2019-2024).