About the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is Europe’s largest centre for research and education in psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. As the premier centre for mental health and related neurosciences research in Europe, the IoPPN is the world’s most cited institution for psychiatry/psychology research with 28 of the most highly cited scientists in their field in the world. Our community of academics work together to translate insights from discovery science (including neuroscience, genomics, social science, and psychology) to interventions to improve patient care and quality of life, and to teach and train the next generation of relevant healthcare practitioners.
The IoPPN is a flourishing and expanding Faculty of King’s College London, with multidisciplinary expertise, across three academic Schools and departments. The work of the institute is enhanced through strong partnerships with the South London & Maudsley (SLaM), Guy’s & St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts, within the academic health sciences centre, King’s Health Partners.
People and structure
The IoPPN has approximately 320 academic and 180 core funded professional services (administrative) staff; over 750 research staff, 600 postgraduate research students, 960 BSc students and 2600 PGT students; with an annual turnover of £155 million.
The IoPPN is made up of three academic Schools that allow our academic mission to be carried out across the wider context of mental health. Each school embraces research, education and clinical translation aiming to further understand and improve mental health and treat disorders of the nervous system. Academics also collaborate within IoPPN, across KCL, throughout the UK and across the globe.
The Institute’s three academic Schools are:
Academic Psychiatry (Head – Professor Allan Young)
Neuroscience (Head – Professor Mark Richardson)
Mental Health & Psychological Sciences (Head – Professor Dame Til Wykes)
The IoPPN has a deep commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and holds an Athena SWAN award (Silver) from 2014, which was subsequently renewed in 2019. The IoPPN 2020-25 strategy puts people at the heart of its success with equality, diversity and inclusion principles applied across all our operations. We provide an inclusive, welcoming, and inspiring place to work and study, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy and parental leave, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. All Faculty meetings integrate diversity principles across the agenda, ensuring that our management culture addresses inequalities across the protected characteristics, through our work practices, research, and education. We have a very active, diverse, and multidisciplinary network of staff and students across the faculty who are involved in ensuring all underrepresented groups are given the same opportunities to thrive as everyone else.
The Faculty is led by the Executive Dean, supported by the Faculty Senior Leadership Team consisting of the three current Heads of School, the Director of Operations (Richard Barnard), Vice Dean-Research (Professor Matthew Hotopf), Dean of Education (Professor Juliet Foster), Vice Dean-International (Professor Paola Dazzan), Vice Dean-Culture Diversity & Inclusion (Professor Stephani Hatch), Associate Director of Education (Naomi Simcox), and the three Heads of School Administration (Vivien Cheah, Lilian Andoh & Dr Jolanta Zanelli).
Location
The Faculty is substantially located on the Denmark Hill Campus, with a significant presence at the Guy’s Campus at London Bridge.
Education
With a student body of over 3500 students, distributed across undergraduate, postgraduate and distance learning online programmes, the IoPPN is the largest centre for mental health education in Europe. It is ranked 2nd in the world for psychology and psychiatry (US News Best Global Universities) and is a leading centre for research and education in neuroscience. With approximately 960 students across two British Psychological Society accredited undergraduate courses, the Faculty strives to deliver research-enhanced and innovative training with clinical placements offered through partnerships across a wide variety of NHS services.
The Psychology BSc programme draws on our established faculty expertise, the NHS and a wide range of clinical researchers and practitioners across the university to develop a full understanding of the applications of psychological science to a variety of contemporary challenges. The Neuroscience & Psychology BSc program cuts across disciplinary boundaries to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand the workings of the brain and the relationship between mental and neural processes in health and disease.
Approximately 2600 students are divided across 21 postgraduate taught MSc programmes, two further distance learning MSc programmes, and a variety of healthcare commissioned training courses (including the UK's longest standing Clinical Psychology course).
As a global centre of excellence for education, research, and clinical training, the postgraduate programmes combine evidence-based teaching and learning, sophisticated patient care planning and extensive research methodology.
The Institute supports academic education pathway, which recognises the importance of research in education and its role in developing a curriculum. Science is embedded throughout, and students are taught by internationally leading research academics.
Research
Our major strengths in psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience across clinical and basic science disciplines is supported through a range of networks within health. This incorporates King’s Health Partners, including a historical partnership with the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (the largest mental health trust in the country), that serves the communities of South London, and provides specialist services for people from across the UK and beyond. There are six Mental Health Clinical Academic Groups (CAG) based at South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (for Addictions, Psychosis, Psychological Medicine & Integrated Care, Child & Adolescent Mental Health, Behavioural & Developmental Psychiatry, and Older Adults & Dementia); as well as the Clinical Neurosciences Clinical Academic Group within King’s College NHS Trust Hospital. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre brings together scientists, clinicians, allied health professionals, service users and carers from across SLaM NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London.
King’s Health Partners Neurosciences comprises the second largest UK academic neuroscience department along research themes of neurodevelopment and disorders; sensation, pain, and hearing loss; injury regeneration and repair; neurodegeneration and dementia; and neuroimaging and computational neuroscience. The clinical research facilities include the National Institute for Health Research-Wellcome Trust King’s Clinical Research Facility, and the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute (with over 250 clinicians and research scientists, incorporating the UK Dementia Research Institute at KCL). Our King’s Health Partners networks also provide opportunities for further research projects and clinical trials as well as world-class undergraduate and postgraduate training in clinical and academic psychiatry and neuroscience.
The 2021 REF results confirmed the faculty's position at the forefront of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience research. The overall quality was rated as 90% either world leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*). Our research environment was assessed as 100% at the highest rating of 4* indicating its potential to produce world leading research. Our research also has impact on the world with 100% of our research impact case studies scoring 4* (outstanding) or 3* (very considerable) in terms of its reach and significance.
Research income in the last academic year was approx. £66.7m, and our new awards topped £51m. Our grants come from a number of sources with research councils and NIHR providing 45%.
Our world-leading research influences policy, care and practice and in order to make such impacts our academics not only work with other universities, but they also interact with industry, healthcare providers and policy makers locally and globally. This ensures that our research is relevant and can influence policy and government on mental health care. We also make sure that service users and carers are involved in designing and carrying out our research as that makes research questions relevant to the real world.
Making a difference is at the heart of what we do. Our research has led to the creation of much needed therapies for some of the most severe mental disorders and changes in how governments around the world think about mental illness. The range of impact locally, nationally, and globally encompasses influencing government policy, to co-production and empowering the patient voice and local communities in their own mental healthcare; to enhanced and innovative training for health practitioners; and economic investment in new drugs, models of treatment and care.