Spotlight on: UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing

5 December 2024

Find out more about UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing, this year's key achievements, and what's to come in 2025.

The past year has been an exciting period of innovation and growth for UCL Grand Challenges, with the programme placed at the heart of UCL’s Strategic Plan 2022-2027.

Launched in September 2023, the evolved programme introduces five new themes: Mental Health & Wellbeing, Climate Crisis, Data-Empowered Societies, Inequalities, and Intercultural Communication. These themes aim to maximise UCL's impact on the most pressing issues facing society today to help make real-world impacts.

Over the next few months, we’ll be spotlighting each theme to give you a chance to find out more about our strategic plans and how you can be involved with UCL Grand Challenges. This month we're focusing on Mental Health & Wellbeing which aims to accelerate improvements in mental health and wellbeing through transformative interdisciplinary research, practice, and partnerships for prevention and early intervention.

What is UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health and Wellbeing?

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With one in four people in the UK reportedly experiencing at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any given year, concerns about mental health are deepening. For children and young people, the figures are even more concerning - a 2023 UK Government survey found that twenty per cent of children aged eight to sixteen had a probable mental disorder; up from twelve per cent in 2017. Within the student population, despite an increased awareness and emphasis on wellbeing initiatives, rates of mental health problems reported by students are nearly seven times higher than a decade earlier. To address such increases in the prevalence and perception of mental disorders, a more robust evidence base regarding factors promoting wellbeing and reducing the mental health burden is urgently needed.

UCL has a long tradition of working across disciplines to address complex societal issues. Led by Professors Essi Viding and Argyris Stringaris (Pro-Vice Provosts), UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing has embarked on a five-year programme of activities to draw upon this rich collective expertise. The theme aims to accelerate improvements in mental health and wellbeing by focusing on four critical pathways to transformational impact: cross-disciplinary research and knowledge exchange; community building and leadership; partnerships; education and student engagement.

Key Achievements and Milestones

In the last year, we have:

Disbursed over £430,000 in cross-disciplinary awards, including funding 18 pump-priming projects across multiple faculties.
Successful applicants, drawn from across 9 faculties as well as external partners have received funding to support research that crosses disciplinary boundaries and innovative approaches. Funding opportunities have also included a call for applications for a catalyst award, aimed at early and mid-career researchers. Find out more.
Launched UCL and North London Mental Health Foundation Trust Partnership
The partnership provides dedicated support for the development of new, timely interventions through joint activities and funding. It focuses on achieving equitable access and treatment, especially for young people, using interdisciplinary approaches. The team have also appointed a dedicated Grand Challenges Theme of Mental Health & Wellbeing NHS Research Collaboration Lead.
Expanded the evidence base of mental health and wellbeing interventions for UCL students and staff
The team have completed mapping available services for mental health and wellbeing and begun creating a new course, "Skills for a Good Life," to help students manage their wellbeing, form social connections, and develop study skills. They have also developed a novel neurodevelopmental pathway for UCL’s university clinic, including a new clinical post focusing on ADHD and ASD referrals from students.
Organised several cross-institutional events, attended by over 550 people. Events have included:
4 Mental Health & Wellbeing webinars, as part of UCL's Lunch Hour Lecture Series, showcasing the university's collective expertise in cross-disciplinary research aimed at prevention and early intervention. Explore the recordings on our website.
Internal networking event focused on creating connections, building partnerships, and showcasing impacts. Bringing together colleagues from across the institution, the workshop showcased findings of projects previously funded by UCL Grand Challenges, providing opportunities to learn more about the impacts of this research, as well as reflections on experiences of cross-disciplinary and collaborative working. Find out more

2025 and Beyond: Our Next Steps

Looking to the year ahead, 2025 will see:

Funding of first randomised controlled trial of novel social-prescribing-based intervention aimed at reducing waiting lists for our NHS partners.
Results from a Grand Challenges funded project that explores the efficacy of exercise intervention amongst UCL’s student population and highlights the mechanisms of its action.
Pump-priming funding call for 2025-26.
Policy roundtables focused on aggression and youth violence, in collaboration with Ending Youth Violence Lab and UCL Public Policy.
Series of high-profile events, including a public event where adolescents will ask mental health experts questions to coincide with Children’s Mental Health Week (3-9 Feb 2025).
Expansion of strategic partnerships.
Continuation of the close collaboration with University Mental Health Charter Oversight Group, to innovate student and staff mental health provision at UCL with strategic research input.

Join our network

If you’d like to stay up to date about the latest funding calls, news, impacts generating and events in 2025, make sure to join our new Mental Health and Wellbeing Teams site.