Bristol’s Professor Yardley awarded OBE for services to Covid-19 response

By Filiz Emily Gurer, News Editor

University of Bristol professor, Lucy Yardley, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2020 for her services to the Covid-19 response.

Professor Yardley, a world renowned Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Bristol, has provided behavioural input to aid government decision makers throughout the pandemic.

She is the co-chair of SPI-B, the sub-group that provides expertise to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), especially around encouraging people to implement measures to tackle the virus.

Professor Yardley is one of six of the UK government’s scientific advisers who sit on the SAGE to have been recognised by this year’s awards, which recognise the achievements of a wide range of extraordinary people across the UK.

The Queen’s Birthday Honours would have normally been announced in June but were delayed until the autumn because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on her involvement in SAGE and on receiving the award Professor Yardley said: ‘At a time when so many people are making such a wonderful effort to help us all get through this difficult time I feel very grateful that I have been given the opportunity to try to make a positive contribution through SAGE and my research.’

Professor Yardley’s main research focus is on empowering people to take control and self-manage their health, especially by developing and evaluating digital interventions.

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She led the development of the ‘Germ Defence’ web app, which helps users adopt better infection control in the home and was shown to reduce infections and illness in the home in the H1N1 pandemic and seasonal flu years.

She has now been funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to update and rapidly disseminate Germ Defence to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

In addition, Professor Yardley is co-leading work on several more research projects to combat Covid-19 and reduce its negative impacts on people.

She is carrying out these projects in her role as theme lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation, the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration-West and Southampton NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.

Featured image: University of Bristol

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