Professor Claire Foster PhD, MSc, BSc, CPsychol
Professor of Psychosocial Oncology, Director of Centre for Psychosocial Research in Cancer: CentRIC+, Cancer and Life Limiting Conditions Research Group Lead

Claire Foster is Professor of Psychosocial Oncology, Director of the Centre for Psychosocial Research in Cancer: CentRIC+ and leads the Cancer and Life Limiting Conditions Care Research Group in Health Sciences, University of Southampton.
Claire's research programme focuses on understanding the impact of cancer and its treatment on everyday lives and how equipped people feel to manage this; understanding the impact of a family history of cancer on people's lives; and developing and testing digital resources to support people affected by cancer to manage some of the consequences of treatment and make complex decisions about treatment or genetic testing. This is achieved through large prospective cohort studies, qualitative studies, development and testing of complex interventions, evaluation of service transformation. We work with people affected by cancer and life limiting conditions as research partners as well as clinical, academic and policy leaders to support the design, conduct and dissemination of the research to maximise impact.
I am passionate about understanding how people are affected by cancer and its treatment, developing resources to support them to make difficult decisions and manage some of the problems cancer and its treatment can bring, and ensuring our research makes a real difference to people’s lives
Her research programme is funded by Macmillan Cancer Support, Cancer Research UK, Movember, National Institute for Health Research, Health Education England, NHS England, Marie Curie and Motor Neurone Disease Association. Recently completed projects have been funded by Breast Cancer Now, NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, and Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
Within Health Sciences Claire is REF 2021 Impact Champion. She supervises a number of PhD and Masters students from Health Sciences, Psychology and Medicine.
Claire is a member of:
British Psychosocial Oncology Society Executive Committee
National Cancer Research Institute Living with and beyond cancer – Methodology Workstream
Bowel Cancer UK Scientific Advisory Board
Editorial Board Psycho-Oncology
Global Partnership on Self-Management in Cancer - Flinders University