Strategic Framework 2021–2025

A Brighter Future

Dr. Shahzad MalikChair of Trustees

Lea MilliganChief Executive Officer

A Brighter Future

At no time before this has society realised the fragility of physical and mental health. In terms of mental health, COVID-19 has placed an additional immense pressure on all of us, and those impacted the most are likely to be from the most vulnerable groups as well as those from BAME backgrounds, young people and those already living with mental health challenges.i The already colossal burden of mental illness has just got greater, and the fissures of mental health inequalities are widening.

MQ has invested over £21M in its first six years supporting the growth of the mental health research sector, impacting the way research is done and developing new tools for the future of mental health diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It is one of only a few charities internationally dedicated to this cause.

Our investment and convening of the mental health research sector has gone on to see over £46M of co-investment and follow-on funding being secured by the most exciting new talent in mental health research. We have also had an enormous impact on the public perception and awareness of mental health through our wide-reaching campaigns and by bringing our research to bear on calling for clear direction during the recent crisis.

As we enter this new strategic chapter of MQ’s continued growth, we have both taken lessons from the past and the research we have invested in, as well as looking to a future of new global uncertainty. We believe that by connecting the public and those with lived experience of mental illness with researchers and scientists, we can continue to see breakthrough in policy, practice and in lives transformed. Over the next 5 years, this will be the underpinning platform on which our work is carried out to see us reach a brighter future of good mental health for all.

Spotlight IDEA: Identifying Depression in Early Adolescence

MQ’s largest award to date is the ambitious IDEA project, which addresses the top question from the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Priority Setting Partnership. This has successfully tested and validated a first-stage risk-detection tool to predict which young people will go on to develop depression. The team have also taken important steps forward in understanding how to successfully deploy such a tool in real-world settings. These exciting developments bring us much closer to being able to identify young people at risk of depression and stop it in its tracks.

The most effective, evidence-based responses require significant investment in research. There is too much at stake for our response to be based on guesswork. Lea Milligan CEO, MQ Mental Health Research

Mental health care has seen little innovation; diagnoses are still based on consensus, not on cause.iii We need transformed understanding and radical new ways of thinking to see breakthroughs in mental health.

Historically, mental health research has been fragmented from physical health and siloed into distinct disciplines. To transform mental health, we need a truly multi-disciplinary approach. Not only from psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience but also everyone from anthropology, clinicians to people living with mental illness. Our MQ expert meeting into psychological treatments, led to the first call for mental health science:iv a new cohesive, multidisciplinary, collaborative super science.

Why Research?

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Impact

Every project we fund is a stepping stone to greater knowledge and impact, bringing us closer to the world we want to create.

Improving anxiety treatments for women

Our work found that women with anxiety who have low levels of oestrogen are less likely to get better – and stay better – following therapy. This could change how treatments for anxiety are delivered – scheduling them at optimal times when oestrogen is highest to improve the lives of millions.

Overcoming trauma

MQ scientists have identified the group of brain cells involved in rewriting traumatic memories, supporting the notion that ‘facing your fears’ could be the most successful way to overcome trauma. This has opened the gates to finding and testing better treatments for PTSD.

Protecting children from psychosis

Pioneering MQ research has proved that taking folic acid during pregnancy can protect against children developing psychosis. This could inform significant policy changes for countries like the UK where food fortification doesn’t happen, and lead to more targeted support for those at high risk of psychosis.

We have invested in 41 research projects

around the world

Every £1 MQ has invested has led to £4.60 of

new research funding

Over 80,000 people used MQ’s new research

recruitment tool, Participate

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We champion and fund world-class research to transform the lives of everyone affected by a mental health condition.

Over the next five years, we are honing our focus on the areas we believe are most vital and where we can have the greatest impact.

After six years of learning and listening, we believe this new five-year framework offers the opportunity for innovative and lasting change in the mental health landscape.

Our Strategic Priorities

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1. Growing Talent

In order to transform mental health, we need a cadre of highly skilled researchers passionate about using their expertise to benefit people’s lives. Mental health research is constrained by the scale of the workforce, with an urgent need to increase its size and diversity.v We support talented, early-career researchers with bold ideas from across the globe, who aspire to be the next generation of leaders in mental health research. We will be funding bold ideas by future leaders with a combination of direct funding and development opportunities. Critically we will ensure they are embedded in a truly interdisciplinary mental health science.

Over the next five years, MQ will invest in inspiring new talent and expand the capability and quality of research

2. Investing in Impact

MQ’s research & publications, alongside our work leading and convening experts at local and international level, have sharpened the focus of Governments, institutions and funders.vi We must continue to put research to work for those affected. We must drive rapid innovation and development, particularly new remote and digital interventions, and radical new ways to think about depression. We need ‘live’ research that can transform policy and practice on the ground.

Over the next five years, MQ will invest in research programmes that drive innovation in policy and practice and challenge the status quo

3. Challenging Inequality

We will have maximum impact by focusing our efforts on substantial unmet need. A cluster of interconnected structural inequalities drastically impact how people experience mental illness and treatment.vii We will put research to work so that vulnerable groups can flourish. We will target the rising tide of youth mental illness, the injustice of racial inequalities in mental illness and treatment, and the scandal of lives cut short through failing to integrate mental and physical health care.

Over the next 5 years, MQ will invest in research that closes the inequalities gap

4. Engaging People

MQ uniquely exists to bring people and researchers together to drive forward mental health research. We believe that while the stigma attached to mental health is decreasing, there is more to do to help people talk transformatively about mental health; to access improved services and treatments more easily; to take part in research; and invest their support in helping the next generation of those experiencing mental illness. We have seen so much support already. Over 16,000 people donated to MQ over the last six years, and over 80,000 people took part in research via our Participate platform - seeing first-hand how research can change the future of mental health.

Over the next five years, we want to see the number of people actively supporting mental health research increase three fold, as well as engage a diverse group of individuals to take part in and inform our research projects

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We are committed to setting the highest ethical and organisational standards for our research. At MQ we believe that the ‘how’ is as important as the ‘why’ and so throughout all of our work, these core pillars will be in place;

Data Driven Science

Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement

Sustainable Investment

Collaboration and Partnership

The mental health challenges we face across the world are huge. But if we work together, through research, we can tackle them. I have a tremendous sense of optimism when I see the bold research being taken forward by MQ, now propelled by this ambitious new call to action.

Professor Emily Holmes, Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, MQ Trustee and Research Committee Chair

Our Approach

Data driven science has huge potential in the near-term to drive forward research and lead to major improvements in care and treatments. It uniquely offers the possibility of incorporating real-world complexity into research, and overcoming the under-representation of key demographic groups in research findings.viii We will support projects that harness the power of data to transform people’s lives. We will continue to galvanise the mental health data science community and transform the policy environment to facilitate effective use of resources through the removal of administrative hurdles to ethical analyses of data.

We will listen to diverse voices to increase understanding of mental health together, through increasing the participation and involvement of people with lived experience of mental illness throughout the research process. Robust research relies on the participation of those affected, from choosing topics and shaping programmes, to disseminating results, and beyond. We will continue to amplify the voice of experts by experience, and ensure they are valued contributors throughout the mental health research landscape.

MQ has invested over £21M into mental health research. Money generously donated by the public and private trusts and foundations has fuelled the advances we have made. We are committed to ensure that all of our investments in research and future programmes give those we fund the confidence they need to undertake vital work and ensure that those who give see a real impact for their investment with us.

MQ wants to engage people from across the mental health ecosystem: people with experience of mental health conditions, funders, charities, healthcare and education professionals, and researchers spanning diverse disciplines from genetics to anthropology and everything between. MQ is committed to expanding its network of partners and never duplicating work that is already being done. It is only together that we will see a brighter future become a reality for mental health.

Public and Patient Involvement

and Engagement

Sustainable Investment

Collaboration and Partnership

Data Driven Science

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MQ is part of the mental health solution. It’s enabling amazing research which, as with services, has been historically underfunded. It has also been pivotal in bringing mental health researchers together – before everyone worked in silos and I would rarely have been in the same room as a genetics researcher or a social scientist. Linking these specialties, and the different types of data they gather, gives a much more real reflection of the true triggers and complexity of mental illness.

Prof. Ann John, MQ Researcher

Play Your Part Six years ago we lost our beloved son, and we are painfully

aware of the damaging consequences of mental illness left concealed, unrecognised, underestimated or ignored. We support MQ because we want more scientific knowledge to dispel fear, and to win better outcomes for people suffering mental distress and for all who care for them. John & Susan Wilkes, MQ Ambassadors

Over the next five years, we can take major strides forward in transforming mental health. But we need you at the heart of this transformation. As this strategy becomes a reality over the coming months and years, you can play your part to secure a brighter future for all.

Fund our work

Research to transform lives would not be possible without funding from individuals, trusts and companies like you, who share a commitment to transforming mental health.

Join our research community

Whether sharing your expertise, engaging with the public, attending our events, or partnering with MQ on research, we want to hear from more researchers like you who share our vision for transforming mental health.

Advocate for mental health research

If you have lived experience of mental illness or support others who do, we want your interests to be at the heart of our work.

We can’t transform mental health without people like you. Visit www.mqmentalhealth.org or email info@mqmentalhealth.org to help us find answers.

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References

i Holmes, E. A., O'Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., Ballard, C., Christensen, H., Cohen Silver, R., Everall, I., Ford, T., John, A., Kabir, T., King, K., Madan, I., Michie, S., Przybylski, A. K., Shafran, R., Sweeney, A., Worthman, C. M., Yardley, L., Cowan, K., Cope, C., Hotopf, M., Bullmore, E. (2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(6), 547–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30168-1 O'Connor, R. C., Hotopf, M., Worthman, C. M., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., Ballard, C., Christensen, H., Silver, R. C., Ford, T., John, A., Kabir, T., King, K., Simpson, A., Madan, I., Cowan, K., Bullmore, E., & Holmes, E. A. (2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic - Authors' reply. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(7), e44–e45. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30247-9

ii Goodwin, G. M., Holmes, E. A., Andersson, E., Browning M., Jones, A., Lass-Hennemann, J., Månsson, K. N. T., Moessnang, C., Salemink E., Sanchez, A., van Zutphen, L. & Visser, R. M. (2018). From neuroscience to evidence based psychological treatments – the promise and the challenge, ECNP March 2016, Nice, France. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 28(2), 317-333. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2017.10.03

iii Russ, T. C., Woelbert, E., Davis, K. A. S., Hafferty, J. D., Ibrahim, Z., Inkster, B., … Mcintosh, A. M. (n.d.). How data science can advance mental health research.

iv Holmes, E. A., Craske, M. G., & Graybiel, A. M. (2014). A call for mental-health science. Clinicians and neuroscientists must work together to understand and improve psychological treatments [Comment]. Nature, 511(7509), 287-289. doi: 10.1038/511287a Holmes, E. A., Ghaderi, A., Harmer, C., Ramchandani, P. G., Cuijpers, P., Morrison, A. P., Roiser, J. P., Bockting, C. L. H., O’Connor, R. C., Shafran, R., Moulds, M.L., & Craske, M. G. (2018). The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Psychological Treatments Research in Tomorrow's Science. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(3), 237-86. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30513-8

v Department of Health. (2017). A Framework for mental health research, (December). Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665576/A_framework_for_mental_health_research.pdf

vi MQ: Transforming mental health. (2019). UK Mental Health Research Funding 2014-2017. London, UK. Retrieved from http://www.joinmq.org/pages/mental-health-research-funding-landscape-report

vii Department of Health and Social Care. (2018). Modernising the Mental Health Act: getting the balance right. The Lancet, 392(10164), 2532–2534. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)33140-4

viii Public Health England. (2018). Health Matters: Reducing health inequalities in mental illness - Public health matters. Retrieved July 17, 2020, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-reducing-health-inequalities-in-mental-illness/health-matters-reducing-health-inequalities-in-mental-illness

Woodall, A., Morgan, C., Sloan, C., & Howard, L. (2010). Barriers to participation in mental health research: Are there specific gender, ethnicity and age related barriers? BMC Psychiatry, 10(1), 103. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-10-103

Registered charity in England / Wales: 1139916 & Scotland: SC046075 | Company number: 7406055. The MQ Foundation is a 501c3 non profit corporation registered in DE and NY.