Dr Amanda Farley BSc (Hons), PhD, FHEA

Associate Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology:

• Postgraduate certificate in academic practice (PCAP), 2015
• PhD in Public Health, University of Birmingham, 2013
• BSc in Neurosciences, University of Central Lancashire, 1999

In 2003, Amanda joined the University of Birmingham as a research associate, employed on a HEFCE funded project to evaluate the national expansion of medical schools.  This included a review of admissions processes to medical schools which was published by the BMJ.

In 2005, Amanda joined the behavioural medicine team within the Department of Applied Health Sciences (then called Department of Public Health and Epidemiology) to work on a Phase III randomised controlled trial which tested the effectiveness of nortriptyline in combination with nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation.  Within this team, Amanda became a UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol studies funded Research Fellow and undertook a part time PhD which investigated the supportive care needs of surgical lung cancer patients and the prognostic significance of smoking.  Alongside her PhD, she led and co-applied for funding for projects on smoking cessation, smoking reduction and weight management. 

In 2012, Amanda took up an assistant professor post in public health and epidemiology and was promoted to associate professor in 2021.  Her research interests centre on addiction and recovery, particularly focusing on the evaluation of interventions to support change and prevent future harm. She has significant track record in the field of tobacco addiction, and more recently has been working on projects related to recovery from drug, alcohol and behavioural addictions. 

Amanda is experienced in a broad range of research methods including systematic reviews, feasibility/pilot trials and full-scale trials.  She also has an interest in non-experimental evaluation methods.  She teaches epidemiology and research methods at both masters (MPH) and undergraduate (MBChB, BMedSc) level, and has led core epidemiology modules at Masters level.  In line with her commitment to help embed smoking cessation into clinical care pathways due to its important role in secondary prevention, she currently delivers lectures on smoking, smoking cessation and vaping on accredited healthcare professional courses within the School of Health Sciences.

Current projects include:

• ECAL (PI) - Randomised controlled trial of electronic cigarettes versus nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation in people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease / EME-ECAL study
• LEROS (PI) – Mapping and realist evaluation of Lived Experience Recovery Organisations as part of the drug and alcohol treatment system in England
• Project Phoenix and Athena – supporting prison leavers in North East Lincolnshire

Masters in Public Health (MPH) 

• Lecturer - Epidemiology, Statistics and Research Methods, Practical Epidemiology and Statistics, Health Promotion module, Systematic Reviews and Evidence Synthesis modules
• Dissertation supervisor

Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) 

• Evidence Based Medicine and Research Methods tutor
• Health Information Evidence Review (HIER) project supervisor

Medical Science (BMedSc) 

• Project supervisor

Current students:

• Sulaiman Alsaad – Prevalence, associations and treatment for comorbid mental health conditions in COPD
• Mohammed Alsanad – Digital interventions for smoking cessation in the thoracic surgery pathway (linked to Project Murray)
• Shiying Jia – Association between vaping and mental health

Amanda is interested in supervising PhD students in the fields of behavioural change, tobacco addiction, e-cigarettes and drug and alcohol addiction/recovery. If you have an idea that you would like to discuss, please contact me at a.c.farley@bham.ac.uk

Outside of the university, Amanda has the following roles:

• President of the Europe Chapter of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-E)
• Trustee of the Europe Chapter of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-E)
• Associate editor at Addiction Journal
• Sub-committee panel member for the NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (NIHR PGfAR)
• Member of the Research Leadership Committee for International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG)
• Editorial board member – npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine Journal
• Steering group member of CRUK E-cigarette Research Form (CRUK ECRF)
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• Associateship of the Society for Study of Addiction (SSA)