Professor Nathan Davies

Profile

I joined QMUL in 2024 as Co-Lead for the Centre for Psychiatry and Mental Health, following 13 years at UCL.

I am Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Centre for Integrated Dementia Care (I-Care-DTC), a £3.4 million, 8-year centre led by QMUL in partnership with LSE, Leeds Beckett University, University of Plymouth, and UCL. The centre will train 29 PhD students to become future dementia research leaders.

I have secured over £37.5 million in research funding, including two post-doctoral fellowships, and published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers. I serve as Qualitative Research Associate Editor for Age and Ageing and sit on several national committees, including the NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) Funding Committee, NIHR Three Schools Dementia Programme Commissioning Panel, and the Marie Curie Research Funding Committee. I am an Honorary Professor at UCL and hold an honorary position at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Research

Research Interests:

My research programme addresses the complex needs of older people living with frailty, delirium, dementia, and other neurodegenerative conditions. Over the past two decades, I have developed a coherent, impact-oriented programme that bridges evidence, policy, and practice across five key areas:

1. Managing clinical complexity, including palliative and end-of-life care
2. Communication and decision-making
3. Intersection of community and hospital care
4. Digital health and technology-enabled care
5. Co-production and applied qualitative methodologies

Equity, inclusion, and meaningful patient and public involvement (PPIE) are central to my work, ensuring research connects with practice and communities. Examples include a decision aid for family carers supporting people with dementia and a novel toolkit of rules-of-thumb for practitioners making end-of-life care decisions. These rules-of-thumb have been widely implemented in practice.

Publications

To see a full list of publications click here

How do people living with dementia perceive eating and drinking difficulties? A qualitative study.

Enteral tube feeding for people with severe dementia

 A systematic review of internet-based interventions aimed at supporting family caregivers of people with dementia.

Defining end of life in dementia: A systematic review

 A co-design process developing heuristics for practitioners providing end of life care for people with dementia

Supervision

I am primary supervisor for:

• Alice Burnand, Managing delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD), in primary and social care, NIHR 3 Schools Dementia Programme (2024-2027).
• Sonja Jacobs, Improving post-discharge feeding support for parents of premature infants, NIHR DCAF (2024-2028).
• Pushpa Nair, Exploring person-centred care, care environments and care planning for people with dementia from South Asian backgrounds, Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellowship (2022-2026).
• Emily Spencer, Advance care planning in dementia: Improving GP consultations and development of a support programme for general practitioners (Consult-GP), Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Fellowship (2022-2026).

I am subsidiary supervisor for:

• Yehudit Bauernfreund, Investigating inequalities in delirium detection and outcomes for people with severe mental illness: understanding current practice, clinical challenges and opportunities for change (2025-2029).
• Ayesha Dar, How can primary and social care providers best support distance caregivers of people with dementia? NIHR 3 Schools Dementia Programme (2024-2027).
• Hannah Kisley, Developing a decision aid for Parkinson’s dementia 
• Danielle Nimmons, Exploring the primary care identification and management of anxiety and depression in people living with dementia, Alzheimer’s Society Clinical Fellowship (2023-2026).
• Jen Pigott, Supporting the needs of people with Parkinson’s Disease and Cognitive Impairment, NIHR/ Rosetrees Trust (2020-2025).