Dr Justin Aunger BA (Hons), PhD, PGCert (HE), FHEA

• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (Distinction), University of Birmingham, 2025
• PhD in Behavioural Science Applied to Health, University of Birmingham, 2020
• BA (Hons) in Health Sciences, University College Maastricht, 2016

Dr Justin Aunger is Research Fellow II in the Department of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham, working within the Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC). His research focuses on behaviour change in complex healthcare settings, patient safety, and strategies to improve organisational culture and early diagnosis pathways for lung cancer.

Justin holds a PhD in Behaviour Change Applied to Health from the University of Birmingham and a BA (Hons) in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from University College Maastricht. He also recently completed a PGCert in Higher Education with Distinction.

His research career spans multiple high-impact projects, including leading realist reviews and mixed-methods studies funded by the NIHR and the European Commission. He has delivered two major NIHR projects as sole research fellow and is currently lead or co-investigator on grants exceeding £2 million, addressing issues such as unprofessional behaviours among healthcare staff and equitable palliative care. He is also developing new research streams as Principal Investigator, including work on improving lung cancer survivability through better follow-up systems.

Justin has published extensively, with over 23 peer-reviewed papers, including over 15 as first author, in journals such as BMC Medicine and Chest. His research outputs have informed NICE guidance, OECD reports, and Parliamentary Committees, and he has produced practical resources for NHS organisations, such as a widely downloaded guide to reducing unprofessional behaviours.

Alongside research, Justin plays an active role in teaching and supervision, leading academic skills modules for the Respiratory Medicine MSc, as well as teaching across programmes such as the Public Health MPH and the Medicine and Surgery MBChB. He also supervises PhD and MPH students. He is passionate about capacity building, mentoring early-career researchers, and advancing equality, diversity, and inclusion in health research.

Justin is a member of editorial boards, conference committees, and NHS working groups, and regularly contributes to public engagement through blogs, podcasts, and invited talks, including at the House of Lords and national NHS events. His long-term ambition is to lead innovative, interdisciplinary research that improves patient safety, staff wellbeing, and health outcomes at scale.

• Module lead for Academic Skills on the Respiratory Medicine MSc programme.
• Under- and postgraduate teaching including lectures and small group sessions across the Public Health MPH and Medicine programmes.
• Co-supervision of PhD and MPH students, supporting research design, analysis, and writing.
• Mentoring Early Career Researchers, including leading internal networks and providing guidance on research development.
• Guest lectures and workshops on realist evaluation, intervention design, and systematic reviews, e.g. at the Health Services Management Centre.
• Recently completed a PGCert in Higher Education with Distinction – and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Currently supervising PhD students as co-supervisor.

Justin is primarily employed in the NIHR Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration, where he leads research around early diagnosis of lung cancer and improving safety culture with a focus on professionalism.

He is leading a project for the NHS Race and Health Observatory focused on tackling bullying, harassment and abuse towards ethnic minority NHS staff (2025 – 2027).

He is co-applicant on another grant funded by the NIHR addressing and understanding unprofessional behaviours in the NHS more broadly using mixed methods (2025-2027, NIHR163519).

He is also co-investigator on a grant using realist evaluation to propose a new integrated neighbourhood team approach to palliative and end of life care (2025-2028 NIHR16217)

He also has attained smaller pots of funding elsewhere, and delivers and contributes to many other smaller projects, including projects to understand and improve patient safety reporting, foster methodological innovation in realist methods, and delivering internships to foster the next generation of researchers.