New CEDI Champion for the NIHR Maudsley BRC

Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa is our new BRC Champion for Culture, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI). Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London. She is also a Consultant Psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Mariana will actively support the diversity and inclusion initiatives across the BRC and will be an advocate for positive change. Her ambition in the role is to foster an inclusive environment, allowing the BRC to engage the talents and energy of a wide range of people in all areas of our programmes of work. By widening access and participation, the goal is to improve the relevance and quality of BRC research and support the dissemination and translation of an EDI culture into clinical practice. Mariana will develop a new EDI strategy for our BRC which will be published in the coming months.  

Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa said, “It is an honour to be appointed as the NIHR Maudsley BRC Champion for Culture, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. I would like to thank the BRC for the confidence placed in me with this appointment. I am committed to ensuring that our research includes underrepresented groups and that we collect and track diversity data over time. I will build upon the previous work to foster an inclusive learning and working environment that reflects, respects and celebrates the diversity of our communities, and a research culture where all are valued and supported to achieve their full potential”.

Professor Matthew Hoptopf, Director of the NIHR Maudsley BRC, adds, “This is a vital role within the BRC. Mariana will be formulating our EDI strategy, working across all our themes to support CEDI and is an important member of the BRC board. We welcome Mariana to the team”.

Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa succeeds Dr Cerisse Gunasinghe who most recently occupied this role and has since moved on to take up a lectureship at City University London.  

About Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa

Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa specialises in public mental health and digital mental health. She has expertise in developing complex interventions in mental health care, co-produced with input from patients and community volunteers.

She led an international study on the mobility experiences of psychiatric trainees in 33 European countries, which showed the impact of parenthood in migratory experiences across Europe, highlighting the differences in parental leave policies across countries.

She also has clinical and research experience in Africa, where she was screening alcohol, smoking and other substances involvement in primary and mental health care service users in Luanda, while studying for the International MSc on Mental Health Policy and Services at the New University of Lisbon, supported by the World Health Organization.

She was nominated by Columbia University to feature in their Top 100 Innovative Women Leaders in Global Mental Health, and was distinguished with a Fellowship by the World Association of Social Psychiatry. During her term as Chair of the Early Career Psychiatrists Section at the World Psychiatric Association she has set up the World Psychiatry Exchange Program, to support early career psychiatrists across the world to conduct short-mobility exchanges overseas in different countries and foster the knowledge triangle of education, research, and innovation.

At South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, she led a collaborative project between NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London, NIHR ARC North Thames and NIHR Northwest London investigating the impact of using remote consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic on primary and secondary health care services in cardiology and mental health pathways, funded by the NHS Beneficial Changes Network. She has also been leading an international study on public mental health work, opportunities and training, conducted in collaboration with the European Psychiatric Association, the World Psychiatric Association, the World Organisation of Family Doctors, the World Federation of Public Health Associations and the Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy Networks – Europe (GAMIAN-Europe).

She is currently a member of the Executive of the NIHR ARC South London, and a member of the Research and Development panel of adult mental health services at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She is the Academic Lead of the Digital Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

She has published more than 100 articles (h-index: 20), including methodology and guidance papers, and in prestigious journals such as The Lancet Psychiatry, World Psychiatry and Nature.

NIHR equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy

The NIHR is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion in everything we do. In September 2022 the NIHR published its EDI strategy for 2022-27, which aims to empower and inspire the NIHR workforce to create positive change, both within NIHR and in the wider community.

For more information about Equality and Diversity, please visit: Equality & Diversity (nihr.ac.uk)