What’s your favourite slogan or mantra?
A fob ben bid bont.
(He who would lead must be a bridge)
Tell us something your colleagues don’t know about you?
I appeared on stage with Michael Ball in his first musical after leaving drama school.
Kerenza Hood, Director, South East Wales Trials Unit, Cardiff University
Cardiff University is one of Britain’s leading teaching and research universities. The South East Wales Trials Unit is part of the infrastructure bringing key NHS links together to support Cardiff’s role to promote health and welfare
In 2006 Professor Kerry Hood helped form the vision and led the development of a new trials unit to meet the needs of established and emerging research leaders in Wales, in the UK, and internationally.
The trials unit would provide an engine for clinical research in Wales. Kerry also developed professional development opportunities for non-medical scientists to conduct academic research and to sustain and promote their careers.
The trials unit is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the initial funding was for three years (2006-2009). Under Kerry’s leadership the funding has been renewed by a further five years. The South East Wales Trials Unit now has 62 members of staff, mostly on a full-time basis.
Kerry has also been instrumental in giving the trials unit an international profile, for example, as a key collaborator for the GRACE research network, an £11.5M European Commission-funded initiative which encompasses 13 European countries.
Under her vision, the trials unit has developed a model of working with research partners within the NHS, academia and industry which means that those partners would now not consider anything other than working with the trials unit.
Kerry’s approach to leadership is driven by the value she places upon all people. She is scrupulously principled and equitable in her approach and she is regarded as supportive and fair by those she interacts with. Her impact upon the careers of those around her is immense. She plays a huge role in developing others, to bringing on the next generation of research leaders.