MQ: Transforming Mental Health

MQ: Transforming Mental Health is an international mental health research charity. The charity was created in 2013, with initial funding from the Wellcome Trust, to raise funds from the general public for research.[1]

MQ: Transforming Mental Health
Formation2013
TypeMedical Research
PurposeMental Health Research
Location
  • London, England
Websitewww.mqmentalhealth.org

The charity's vision is to create a world where mental illnesses are understood, effectively treated and one day made preventable. It funds multi-disciplinary research into mental health, across the spectrum of biological, psychological and social sciences.

Whilst the charity is based in the UK, it has an international focus and funds research globally.

Research

MQ's research programme focuses on four specific areas:

  • Supporting future generations - MQ's flagship Brighter Futures programme launched in 2017 focuses on tackling mental illness in young people
  • Improving current treatments - MQ's Psy-Impact programme funds research to improve the effectiveness and accessibility of psychological therapies
  • Promoting research leadership - MQ's Fellow programme funds early career researchers tackling mental health.
  • Utlisiing mental health data - MQ's Data Science Programme support research utilising data to improve mental health.

Brighter Futures

MQ's Brighter Futures programme brings together scientists, clinicians, people with experience of mental health problems and partner organisations to address three of the most pressing challenges in young people’s mental health:

  • Understanding how mental illness develops.
  • Learning how to identify which young people are most at risk.
  • Developing effective interventions for young people and ensuring they are delivered in practice.

Between 2017 and 2020, MQ is investing £2.5m in three projects

  • Identifying Depression in Early Adolescence (IDEA) - Study analysing research and data about social and family environment, stressful experiences, brain images, and biological data of 10-24 year olds from four different countries – the UK, Brazil, Nigeria and Nepal. The project is working to find universal and context-specific risk factors for depression in young people with the aim of creating a tool to screen young people for depression, which could become part of global health services.
  • Help Overcome and Predict the Emergence of Suicide (HOPES) - Study developing a model to predict who is at risk of suicide – analysing brain scans and data on suicidal behaviour and traits of young people from across the world to identify specific, universal risk-factors.
  • Adolescent Data Platform (ADP) - Partnership with Swansea University to build a data resource for researchers and policy-makers anonymously bringing together billions of pieces of data relating to the mental health of young people aged 10-24, ranging from administrative health, social and education data, to psychological and clinical data, as well as information from research studies.

Fellows

The MQ fellows award[2] provides successful applicants with up to £225,000 over 3 years to support research exploring new ways to understand, treat or prevent mental illness. 20 Fellows have so far been selected for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Mental Health Science Meeting

MQ's Mental Health Science Meeting is a large international scientific meeting dedicated to mental health science.[3] It has been running annually every February since 2014.

CEO and Trustees

The CEO of MQ is Lea Milligan, formerly the Executive Director of Mercy Ships UK.[4] He took up the post at the end of June 2020.[5]

The Chair of MQ is Shahzad Malik, General Partner of Advent Life Sciences.[6] He took over from Sir Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief, Nature, who took over from Lord Dennis Stevenson, who was the founding chairman.

MQ's other trustees are from a variety of different sectors. They currently comprise:[7]

  • Dr Shahzad Malik (Chair)
  • John Herrmann
  • Professor Emily Holmes
  • Professor Peter Jones
  • Dr Helen Munn OBE
  • Chris Parsons
  • Professor Irene Tracey
  • Sarah Woolnough

References
  1. "Why Are We Failing to Fund Mental Health Research?". The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  2. Lock, Helen. "Mental health research: underfunded and failing to attract young academics". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  3. "Live blogging (and more) for a scientific meeting". Richard Berks. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  4. "Mercy Ships UK appoints new Director". Mercy Ships. 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  5. "Mental health research charity announces new CEO". Charity Today News. 2020-05-25. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  6. "Subscribe to read | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-06-26. Cite uses generic title (help)
  7. "Charity Details". beta.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
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