Monica Lakhanpaul

In 2022, Lakhanpaul lead the presentation of the CHAMPIONS Project, in collaboration with De Montfort University and others, a nationwide study assessing the impact of the COVID-19 on children under-5 living in temporary accommodation, at the British Science Festival which took place in September. This came in the form of a multimedia moving exhibition as well as the creation of a public wall mural in Leicester City.

From 2022 onwards, she co-hosted the University College London 'Unlocking the SDGs: A Blueprint for the Future' podcast, which brings together experts from across UCL and beyond to explore the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2022, Professor Lakhanpaul was also part of the research team for the Mapping Synergies and Trade-offs Between Sanitation and the SDGs project funded by the Vitol Foundation which identified synergies and trade-offs between sanitation and the UN SDGs, and the Impacts of Contaminated Water on Children Project (ICWCProjectUCL), a University College London-lead interdisciplinary project, working in partnership with Aceso Global Health Consultants, exploring the impacts of contaminated water on child health in low-and-middle-income countries.

As well as specialising in citizen science and interdisciplinary research, Professor Lakhanpaul is also a proponent of knowledge translation and the communication of scientific information in other formats. To this end, in early 2021 she undertook a British Science Association Media Fellowship, during which she was placed with BBC Science and produced pieces worked for Health Check on BBC World Service and Inside Health on BBC Radio 4, including being invited as speaker on both at the end of her placement.

In March 2021, she led the project The Early Years – A Window of Opportunity exhibition, which builds on Birthing a Better Future. This global art and science exhibition also involved Public Arts Health & Us (PAHUS), with whom Professor Lakhanpaul has collaborated on many projects, and was sponsored by University College London and the Wellcome Trust (UK)-Department of Biotechnology, Government of India Alliance. Zero2 Expo curated the virtual exhibition, which was centred on the theme of raising awareness of child health in the first 1000 days of life in India. It featured pictures submitted by artists and members of the public, images taken during the Participatory Approach for Nutrition in Children, Strengthening HEEE Linkage (PANChSHEEEL) research project and drawings by children on the effect of COVID-19 on their lives.

Professor Lakhanpaul focuses on promoting the use of the creative arts as a means of exploring scientific and health topics, as can be seen through her work on the Mental Health Literacy Project India Foundation. She was on the shortlisting panel for the Health and the Environment Short Film Award at the Global Sustainability Film Awards (GSFA) in 2020 and is an Expert Advisor to Zero2 Expo’s Birthing a Better Future art and science exhibition, which showcases artwork centred around the importance of the first 1000 days of life from conception to the age of 2. The exhibition has toured the UK, including a period of display in the Houses of Parliament in 2016, and has been presented via a virtual exhibition during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lakhanpaul was part of the research team for the Mental Health Literacy Project (MeHeLP) India Foundation, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK Global Challenges Research Fund and started in 2018. This project worked to spread public awareness of mental health literacy through theatre and aimed to promote understanding of living with mental health issues by exploring the stories of people accessing mental health support.

From 2016 to 2019, Professor Lakhanpaul was appointed Head of the Department of Population, Policy and Practice Research & Teaching Department at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), during which time she oversaw significant change within the Department. She was chosen as Pro-Vice-Provost (South Asia) at UCL Global Engagement, in 2018, leading on strategy and the delivery of partnerships and collaboration between UCL and partners in South Asia. This is a significant ambassadorial and leadership position at UCL, where there are Pro-Vice-Provosts for several regions, each with the responsibility of promoting UCL and building relationships in their respective areas. During her time as Pro-Vice-Provost, UCL has formed particularly close ties with several institutions in India, including the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in November 2019 between UCL and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). This MoU further cemented an already close relationship between University College London and AIIMS and also signalled the starting of a collaborative seed fund for research, which subsequently awarded funding to four projects in 2019-2020. Whilst at AIIMS for the signing of the MoU, Professor Lakhanpaul attended a paediatric surgical conference, at which she was presented with a recognition award by the AIIMS Director, Professor Randeep Guleria. In her role as Pro-Vice-Provost, Professor Lakhanpaul also chairs the UCL South Asia network which discusses issues of interest in the region, including funding and collaboration opportunities.

She later joined the NETSCC Women and Children’s Health Panel from 2013 until 2018. During this time, Lakhanpaul was Deputy Theme Lead (Child and Adolescent Health) for Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) North Thames, and from 2014 to 2018 she was Clinical Director (Children and Young People) for UCL Partners, which is a North London academic health science network.

In 2012, Lakhanpaul joined UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health as Professor of Integrated Community Child Health and also became an Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Whittington Hospital. She was also appointed as Clinical Director at UCL Partners and Deputy Theme Lead at Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) North Thames.

Lakhanpaul was the first Clinical Director for the National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health (NCC-WCH), responsible for leading on the development of children’s guidelines for NICE. In 2008, she was appointed founding member of the NHS Evidence Advisory Board. She was also invited to be a member of the National Institute for Health Research Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre Health Technology (NETSCC) Assessment Psychological and Community Therapies Panel in 2011. She held the first Paediatric NICE Fellowship from 2010 to 2013.

Lakhanpaul was also an early proponent of the development of new tools for educating health professionals and science communication. This led to her role as Academic Lead and Co-Director of the Health Education Research & Development Unit (HERADU) from 2006-2012, working in partnership with media experts to develop interactive online tools such as Spotting the Sick Child – now in its fourth edition and having been funded at various stages by the UK Department of Health, Health Education England, and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

In her clinical work at the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust from 2002, she was appointed as a Consultant Paediatrician and Senior Lecturer. She worked in the community to improve the health and wellbeing of children from more vulnerable and underserved communities and contributed greatly to the education of medical students. This included promoting the shifting of undergraduate teaching from the hospital to the community by introducing new, community-focused modules to the teaching programme.

Professor Lakhanpaul was born and grew up in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, the daughter of migrants from India. She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Manchester in 1992, and with a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Nottingham Medical School in May 2003 under the supervision of Professor Sir Terence Stephenson.

After receiving her Bachelor’s in 1992, Lakhanpaul worked as a doctor in Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham, working as a Specialist Registrar until 1998. Between 2000 and 2002, she held a variety of positions: Temporary Lecturer, then Research Fellow at University Hospital, Nottingham, and Specialist Registrar. During this time, she gained her Doctor of Medicine, focusing on the development of breathing difficulty guidelines using the Delphi consensus methodology.