Professor Kate Ward

Kate is Professor of Global Musculoskeletal Health, University of Southampton. She also Directs the NIHR Global Health Nutrition Research Group in Southampton.  She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at MRC Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Honorary Associate Professor at University of The Witwatersrand.  Her research career spans over 20-years’ experience in musculoskeletal research in the UK, and 10 in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).  She is a co-I in two programmes in the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre and has demonstrated successful research leadership as PI in several UK-project grants and MRC programmes. 

Kate’s research programme focusses on Global Musculoskeletal Health. Examples of recent successes:

• PI of the MUFASSA study (Muscle strength, functional ability in Sub-Saharan Africa) (£898K)
• Director of an NIHR Global Health Research Group (17/63/154) leading a new collaboration across four research sites; Southampton, Burkina Faso, Ghana and South Africa. (INPreP - The NIHR Global Health Research Group in leveraging improved nutrition preconception, during pregnancy and postpartum in Sub Saharan Africa though novel intervention models, Southampton 1000 DaysPlus Global Nutrition, at the University of Southampton, £2,327,145).
• Co-Director of the University of Southampton Global Health Research Institute
• Co-director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Musculoskeletal Network (SAMSON;), funded through my Academy of Sciences and GCRF networking grants. SAMSON provides a platform for collaborative research and capacity building across 9 partner institutions in the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
• Lead collaborative partner in a large 5-year NIHR-Wellcome funded Partnership for Global Health Research Collaborative Award (217135_Z_19_Z Fractures in Sub-Saharan Africa: epidemiology, economic impact and ethnography; FRACTURES-E3, £3,687,583)

International and National Leadership: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Council (2017-2020); Bone Research Society (BRS) President Elect (2020-22) Secretary (2015-2018 (Committee 2011-15), Conference Co-Chair 2018), International Osteoporosis Foundation Committee for Scientific Advisors (2017-) Royal Osteoporosis Society: Bone Academy Technology Working group (2019-), Research Grants Committee  (2012 – 2018), Conference Committee (2012-2018), Nutrition & Lifestyle Forum (2010 – ), NOS Exercise Expert Steering group (2016 -) International Society for Clinical Densitometry Pediatric Task Force 2007, 2014.  University of Southampton Public Health and Global Africa Group lead for the World Universities Network (2019- ); University of Southampton GCRF Management Committee.  Editorial boards: Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (2017-2018; Associate Editor 2018- ), JBMR Plus (2017-), Frontiers in Endocrinology – Bone Research (Associate Editor 2011 -2018 )

Prizes

• The effect of calcium supplementation on adolescent bone growth in pre-pubertal Gambian females: a 12-year follow-up study. (2015)
• President Elect of Bone Research Society (2020)
• Honorary Senior Research Fellow at MRC the Gambia Unit at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2020)
• Appointed Honorary Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (2020)
• Appointment to International Osteoporosis Foundation Committee for Scientific Advisors (2018)
• Appointment to Editorial Board of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Disease (2017)
• Associate Editor of Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (2018)
• American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Council (2017)
• Honorary Secretary to Bone Research Society (2015)