Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Professor Sassy Molyneux has received a prestigious five-year NIHR Global Health Research Professorship to study how to better protect frontline staff in international health research from moral distress. This is one of only five to seven such `flagship’ professorships awarded by the NIHR each year to outstanding scientists.

Professor Sassy Molyneux

Professor Molyneux's research investigates moral distress. Moral distress happens when someone knows the right thing to do but institutional constraints make it nearly impossible to pursue that course of action. Professor Molyneux will collaborate with colleagues and partners in various resource-limited settings to understand the causes and effects of this distress and to evaluate the effectiveness of institutional processes designed to minimize and manage it.

The main goals of this research are to create evidence-based guidelines that promote fairer international research practices, foster a more inclusive and innovative research culture, and strengthen research systems to enhance health system resilience.

Professor Molyneux’s professorship will be led from the Health Systems Collaborative in Oxford and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kenya. It will be conducted in partnership with international networks, including the Global Health Bioethics Network, Health Systems Global, the Rebuild Consortium, the Oxford Pandemic Sciences Institute, and the Global Health Ethics & Governance Unit at WHO.

The work will involve reviews of relevant guidance and literature, in-depth empirical work centered around a series of international research case studies, and wider consultations with frontline staff, managers and funders. 

The work will be divided into three broad phases:

⁻          Better Characterising Moral Distress: designing tools to explore and measuring moral distress among frontline research staff.

⁻          Implementing Change: co-designing, iteratively implementing and evaluating promising change processes

⁻          Developing Guidance: progressing recommendations for funders, research leaders, and science/ethics reviewers aimed at reducing moral distress and managing its harmful effects.

Throughout the project, a 'frontline staff network' will provide input and advice.

Professor Richard Cornall, Head of Nuffield Department of Medicine said, 

“Congratulations to Professor Molyneux on this well-deserved recognition. This award honours Professor Molyneux exceptional contributions to social and medical sciences, and the delivery of healthcare. The award will enhance the translation of cutting-edge research and improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in lower and middle-income countries. The relationship between Institutions such as Oxford and funding bodies such as the NIHR is vital to fostering innovative research and strengthening academic leadership and we are pleased to support Professor Molyneux alongside NIHR for this award.” 

NIHR Director of the Global Health Research Programme, Professor Kara Hanson said: 

“The Global Research Professorship is our flagship award. It funds researchers to translate discoveries into enhanced interventions, diagnoses and treatments. This year, our Global Research Professors are working across a range of pertinent areas including sexual health, HIV/AIDS, mental health and multi-morbidities.

I look forward to seeing how their research progresses and the difference their research will make to communities across the world”.

Visit the NIHR Global Health Research Professorship page

This story was originally posted on the Oxford Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health website.