Gill Windle (BSc; MSc; PhD) is a Chartered Psychologist and Gerontologist who specialises in interdisciplinary research. She is the Director of DSDC Wales and the Associate Director of the Wales Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research (CADR). Gill’s research aims to improve the health, wellbeing and resilience of older people, people with dementia and their supporters, and improve care and service provision.

Gill leads and contributes to mixed-methods studies and intervention trials, and has led and contributed to externally won research funding totalling £19,858,090.00, representing £10,464,912.00 from UK Research Councils (ERSC; MRC; AHRC),  £7,142,988.00 from Welsh Government research infrastructure awards and £ 2,102,190.00 from other sources including the Wellcome Trust. Her most research achievement is the award of £1,480,000.00 from the National Institute of Health Research to lead a randomised controlled trial of a digital health intervention ‘iSupport’ to help dementia carers develop skills and take care of themselves.

Her work has informed Welsh policy development, and in 2001 as a post-graduate research assistant she co-authored six literature reviews with Professor Vanessa Burholt to inform the development of the first Strategy for Older People in Wales. She also led a review to inform the Healthy Ageing Action Plan (Welsh Assembly Government 2005). Following her PhD in 2006, she was seconded to the Older People’s Strategy Unit at the Welsh Assembly Government during the 2006/07 interim review period of the strategy, and was a member of the Strategy Advisory Group.

Between 2016 and 2018 she was a member of the Welsh Government dementia strategy task and finish group, and is currently a member of a Welsh Government group overseeing the implementation and impact of the dementia strategy. As part of this work, she is involved in two working groups (implementation of dementia care standards; learning and development), and the North Wales dementia strategy implementation steering group.

In recognition of her work she was awarded a personal chair by Bangor University in 2018.

REF 2021

Gill's individual research outputs were submitted into the UoA3 REF assessment which contributed to the submission being ranked 15^th overall in the UK. 95% of this submission was classified as world leading or internationally excellent. Her interdisciplinary research led to the submission of a REF 2021 impact case study ‘Innovations in Dementia Care’ https://www.bangor.ac.uk/ref-2021#3

Current research projects include the following topics: 

• Leading the development of a conceptual framework of resilience for people living with dementia
• Leading the development of the first outcome measure of resilience for people living with dementia
• Leading a programme of work including an RCT examining a technology developed by the World Health Organisation 'iSupport for dementia carers'

Please look at the research themes here http://dsdc.bangor.ac.uk/research.php.en

Current PhD projects:

Bethan Naughton Morgan. 'Adapting an e-health intervention i-Support for carers of people living with rare dementias. (ESRC studentship).

Laura Braithwaite Stuart. 'Exploring communication in dementia: An intergenerational family systems approach'. (NHS studentship).

Hannah Jelly. 'Co-Creating a resilience-building framework for people with dementia and their carers’. (HCRW social care studentship).

I'm particularly interested in highly motivated, output-focussed people who are interested in health, wellbeing and resilience in later life; interventions to support older people and their carers to age well;  living as well as possible with chronic and degenerative health conditions, such as dementia.

2023 - Excellent MSc project opportunties! Secondary analysis of existing data (quantitative) - topics include i) hearing loss, cognitive function and the links with loneliness; ii) resilience in carers of people living with rare dementias; iii) validation of an established resilience outcome measure for use with dementia carers.

There are also possible opportunities within my recent grant which is looking at supporting people living with dementia, including those with rare dementias.

Please look at our research themes http://dsdc.bangor.ac.uk/research.php.en