The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience works to transform care for people who are affected by mental health and neurological conditions, through world-class research, education and training, and to serve our communities locally and globally.
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), one of the nine faculties at King’s, is Europe’s largest centre for research and postgraduate education in psychiatry, psychology, basic and clinical neuroscience. We are internationally recognised as a world-leading centre for mental health research, producing more highly cited outputs (top 1% citations) in Psychiatry & Mental Health than any other centre internationally (Scopus, 2022).
The IoPPN has over 2,000 students, 1,000 staff (370 core funded) and a turnover of £125 million (£60 million research). Split across Denmark Hill and Guy’s Campus, the IoPPN has the unique advantage of being co-located with the world famous Maudsley Hospital, now part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. This successfully facilitates the seamless movement of researchers and clinicians between the two institutions and ensures high quality translational research, new understanding of the nervous system and novel approaches to treatment.
Together, King’s and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust have been responsible for many ground-breaking evidence-based developments in mental health and neuroscience, from basic science across the full translational range of activities. Breakthroughs include the contributions by Rosalind Franklin, Ray Gosling and Maurice Wilkins to understanding the structure of DNA, the treatment of shell shock, the Maudsley model for treating eating disorders, medication for migraines, CBT for psychosis, the role of nicotine in addiction, stem cell therapy to repair stroke damage, and many more. With child and adolescent mental health, such ground-breaking developments include identifying the genetic basis for autism, showing the severe and long-lasting impacts of early deprivation on neurodevelopment, identifying that most adult mental disorders begin in childhood or adolescence and developing the Maudsley Family Treatment model for eating disorders, now adopted in many countries.
Our impact over the past 100 years was recently honoured when Her Majesty the Queen awarded King’s the country’s first Regius Chair in Psychiatry in 2013, as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The partnerships with NHS trusts, charities, industry, and national and international academics allows us to apply cross-disciplinary perspectives to prevention, treatment and novel research approaches. Working across the lifespan, as well as the mental and physical health interface, we influence policy, practice and public understanding of mental health and neuroscience.
In the recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) ratings (2021) our Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience research (UoA4) was rated as 2nd in the country (power), and we achieved 100% 4* (top) ranking for research ‘environment’, providing an ideal setting for UKRPIF investment in this field. No other centre produced as many 4* impacts in this REF category. Our close relationship with service providers and work with communities affected by mental health problems and policy-makers such as NICE are critical to our success in translating scientific discoveries into real-world interventions and policy changes that improve health.
We are home to one of the world’s largest centres for postgraduate education and research in the areas of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience, and we are ranked 1st in the world for the number of research papers in these areas in the top 10% (Scopus Data). Our world-class research-led learning experience attracts the very best students from around the world. Students have unparalleled opportunities in clinical training, placements and research as a consequence of the Institute’s long relationship with, and close proximity to, the Maudsley Hospital.
Our psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience courses offer training in a variety of specialist fields that have clear applications in mental health care and neuroscience (including careers in child and adolescent mental health, forensic or health psychology, clinical neuropsychiatry, neurology, neuroimaging, therapy, addictions work, mental health nursing, NHS service management). Our teaching activities have expanded from around 100 full-time- equivalent students to around 1,000 over the last two decades and we launched our first full undergraduate programme in psychology three years ago, which has been heavily oversubscribed. We currently offer 5 undergraduate courses and 26 postgraduate courses.
In January 2020 we launched a five-year strategic plan, whose main pillars are people and culture, research, education, international and impact and influence. Following the launch of the strategy we have transformed the existing Divisions within the Institute in to Schools and the Head of Schools together with their respective Heads of Department are undertaking an academic reshaping to ensure that our academic configuration is optimized to take advantage of funding opportunities for research that will materialise over the next five years.
For further information, please visit: kcl.ac.uk/ioppn