19/08/25
Faculty promotions and grant award bring good news for the Lab
It’s the end of the academic year, and we are delighted to see that the hard work of some of our Lab leadership has been recognised through new promotions and grants.
Lab implementation fellow Dr. Jude Dineley has been granted the NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award. A highly competitive grant, this award will support Jude’s work in evaluating and implementing AI transcription and reporting tools to improve clinical efficiency, driving key benefits for NHS services. Jude said:
“AI in speech and documentation tools are already here and in early use in NHS clinics, bringing both opportunities and challenges. Working closely with clinicians, carers, patients and industry, I’m passionate about helping drive responsible and inclusive implementation of speech and related AI technology for the greatest possible benefit to those using CAMHS services.”
You can read more about Jude’s award here.
Also in Team Speech, Dr. Nick Cummins was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the most recent round of promotions at the IoPPN. His work leading the Voice and Speech Processing for Health group at King’s also puts automated speech and voice analysis at the heart of mental healthcare. With a couple of new grants putting speech monitoring into routine mental health assessment, Nick and Jude will be busy in the coming months; stay tuned for more news from Voice and Speech Processing for Health soon. Nick said:
"Working with the CAMHS Digital Lab is inspiring – their support and collaboration played a key role in my promotion."
Finally, we are delighted to announce that the Lab Lead, Johnny Downs, has been promoted to Professor. This academic year, he will take up the position of Child Psychiatry and Health Informatics in the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Johnny said:
“It has been great to see Nick and Jude be recognised in this way – very well-deserved. I am delighted to be promoted too and want to take this opportunity to celebrate the CAMHS Digital Lab. I love working with the team we have built; it is an incredible group of clinicians, informaticians, managers, designers, researchers and engineers. I am very grateful to them all and the work they are doing to improve our understanding of young people’s mental health and how best to deliver support. We’ve got loads to do but it is a real boost knowing our efforts are being valued in this way."
We’re incredibly proud to see Prof. Downs’ hard work be recognised through this fantastic achievement, and to see the influence of his clinical research continue to improve practice for children and young people’s mental health services for years to come.