Dr Marie-Louise Sharp is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at King’s College London and a Senior Behavioural Research Fellow (ESRC/UKRI Policy Fellowship) at the University of Birmingham (Centre-UB), seconded into the Cabinet Office.

Marie-Louise is a mixed methods researcher and has research expertise in psychological medicine and epidemiology. Her ESRC/UKRI policy fellowship aims to build capability and upskill the Civil Service and leaders in government in applying behavioural and social science evidence to develop more effective strategy, policy and practice to improve outcomes for UK citizens and UK interests abroad.

Her research interests include military mental health and help-seeking behaviours, the health and wellbeing of Emergency Responders and has a focus on methods to extend research impact. She was the academic lead on the KCMHR Phase Four of the UK Armed Forces Health and Wellbeing Cohort Study funded by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, and Project Manager for the SUSTAIN project funded by FiMT - 'Identifying and examining the barriers to female veterans making a successful and sustainable transition to civilian life in the UK'.

Marie-Louise previously worked in the non-profit sector specialising in Armed Forces healthcare policy. Marie-Louise also has a background in political science having trained at post-graduate level at Oxford University.

Research Interests

• Occupational Epidemiology
• Armed Forces and Emergency Responders mental health and wellbeing
• Help-seeking behaviours for mental health problems
• CMD, PTSD and alcohol use
• Suicide and Self-harm
• Military Sexual Trauma

Research Groups

• KCMHR
• ADMMH

Teaching

Guest lecturer on MSc in Psychiatry and War and BSc in Psychology. Previous module leader on BSc Psychology ‘War in the Mind’.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Marie-Louise is a member of the Confederation of Service Charities Research Cluster and the Contact Group. 'Contact' is the collaboration of statutory and non-statutory (charity, academic and professional) organisations working to improve mental health support to the UK armed forces community including serving personnel, veterans and their families. She is also a member of the Five Eyes Mental Health Research and Innovation Collaborative focused on improving international research and mental health outcomes for the Armed Forces community.