Our final announcement of new SDRC Executive Committee members is Stina Saunders. We are delighted to have Stina joining us and look forward to working with her and all the new members. Find out more about Stina in the blog below.  

I am in the final year of my PhD at the University of Edinburgh Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences and have also been working in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease since 2015. My research interests are risk disclosure in the pre-dementia stages and risk reduction. My PhD project is a longitudinal cohort study where I am examining the impact of risk disclosure in the mild cognitive impairment population. This work stemmed from the European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) programme, particularly within the Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications of Risk Disclosure work group. I also coordinate the University of Edinburgh based electronic Person Specific Outcome Measure (ePSOM) development programme which is initiated by the European Medicines Agency for incorporating meaningful outcomes to study participants in Alzheimer’s disease trials. In parallel, I have been active in PPI, most noticeably working within a team setting up and continuing to run the Participant Panels which we hope inspires longitudinal studies in involving research participants as partners.

Before my PhD studies and work in clinical trials, I completed postgraduate studies (MA) in Clinical Psychology at the University of Tartu, focusing on adjustment disorders and stress reactions and subsequently further postgraduate studies (MRes) at the University of Edinburgh also in Clinical Psychology.

I have been an active member of SDRC throughout my PhD and I am grateful for the opportunity to now be able to contribute to the consortium’s work as a member of the Executive Committee. Being by far the most junior member of the Executive, I aim to advocate for Early Career Researchers by proposing ideas that will have an impact on our careers as well as voicing some of the wider challenges Early Career Researchers face in academia (e.g., unpaid internships). 

You can view and find out more about the entire SDRC Executive Committee members here

Thank you and congratulations to Stina! 

The SDRC Executive Committee are elected from SDRC membership annually. If you would like to know more about when these elections are, become an SDRC member