A professor of psychiatry from Keele University has been commended for his “highly innovative and international” research by an esteemed psychiatry organisation. 

Professor Saeed Farooq, NIHR Global Research Professor and Professor of Psychiatry and Public Mental Health at Keele, won the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists Mid/Senior Career Academic Researcher of the Year Award at the recent RCPsych Awards 2024. 

These annual awards celebrate “the best and brightest teams and individuals” in the field of psychiatry, with the judges commending Professor Farooq’s research as being “highly innovative and international in nature with great potential for improving care for mental ill-health worldwide”. 

Professor Farooq is an NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Global Research Professor, Professor of Psychiatry and Public Mental Health at Keele University, and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. 

Over his career, Professor Farooq has published over 250 journal articles, and led studies on improving treatment adherence, optimising treatment for severe mental illness, and early detection of treatment resistant schizophrenia. He has successfully won research grants collectively worth £10 million as principal investigator. 

Professor Farooq said “I am extremely delighted to receive the Academic Researcher of the Year award. This award highlights the highly innovative and impactful nature of our research that had highly significant impact for large populations of disadvantaged people living with mental illness worldwide.  

“The award recognises the hard work that my team and collaborators have been doing at Keele, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other countries.”