Dr Laura Kudrna

• PhD Social Policy, London School of Economics, 2018
• Year 1 Post-Graduate Certification in Higher Education, 2017
• MSc Social Research Methodology, London School of Economics, 2012
• BSc Psychology, University of Westminster, 2009

Laura previously held postdoctoral research posts at the University of Birmingham on the Applied Research Collaboration (2020-2022), University of Warwick Medical School (2018-2020), and London School of Economics' (LSE) Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science (2017-2018).

Laura led an ARC project evaluating the effectiveness of NHS training sessions about better use of data to improve patient care. She continues to lead NIHR-funded cross-regional mixed methods work investigating whether and how workplace health and wellbeing initiatives across the UK shape staff health and wellbeing.

Her further research projects include topics related to screening and vaccination behaviours, the impact of surgical trials on surgical practice, patient uptake of video consultations, improving communication with ethnic minority pregnant women and people, and better understanding and measuring community wellbeing.

At Warwick, she contributed to a mixed-methods evaluation of a workplace health and wellbeing intervention that was funded by the Department of Work and Pensions. This was a cluster trial with 100 small and medium-sized enterprises enrolled in a health and wellbeing initiative delivered by local government.

At LSE, she co-developed and evaluated a mobile phone application that tracks mood and behaviour on a John Templeton Foundation Happiness and Wellbeing Programme grant. She also contributed to research about narrating moments of meaning at work, time use and wellbeing, and wellbeing valuations of culture and sport for government.

Funders of Laura’s work include the NIHR National Priority Area Research Consortium for Prevention, NHS Race and Health Observatory, Public Health England, and What Works Centre for Wellbeing with Centre for Ageing Better and Spirit of 2012. Her PhD on relative income and wellbeing was fully funded by a prestigious LSE School Scholarship. 

Laura is passionate about conducting impactful research and has twice been awarded funding for impact projects. Her work attracts national and international media attention, and she has appeared on National Public Radio and BBC World News Television. Her research has been featured in news outlets such as the Guardian, Financial Times, and Times of India. Recently she was featured as an Up and Coming Voice in the Science of Behaviour Change by the Association for Psychological Science.

Prior to academia, Laura worked in the private sector in medical, financial, and technology research, including project management, recruitment and training, and quality control. 

• MBChB
• Public Health MPH/PGDip/PGCert
• Intercalation PoSH BMedSci

Laura is available to supervise doctoral research students in the following areas:

• Behaviour change programmes that apply established frameworks (COM-B, Mindspace) to affect health and wellbeing
• Workplace health and wellbeing research, including meaningful work and subjective perceptions of wellbeing
• Diary-based and time use approaches to tracking behaviour and wellbeing

If you are interested in studying any of these subject areas please contact Laura directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Research interests

Behavioural science, wellbeing, quality of life, healthcare, workplaces, implementation science, psychology, social policy, inequality

Current selected projects

• NHS Race and Health Observatory (£100K) - Promoting effective and respectful communication with ethnic minority women and pregnant people, 2022-2023, co-PI
• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Prevent Funding (£297K) – Pilot evaluation of a behaviour change support intervention for employers in the Thrive at Work health and wellbeing programme, 2021-2023, PI
• Research England Quality-Related Impact Funding (£20K)  – Aligning investigative recommendations with statistical findings in healthcare, 2021, co-I
• What Works Centre for Wellbeing (£47K) – Different People, Same Place: Understanding and modelling the relationship between individual and place-based community wellbeing, 2020-2021, co-PI
• Public Health England (£78K) – Core Standards in Screening, 2020-2021, co-I
• Warwick Institute of Advanced Study (£3K) – Field Experiment to Understand Behavioural Spillovers 2019), co-I
• LSE Knowledge Exchange and Impact (KEI) (£78,387) – Time Use Wellbeing App, 2016/17
• LSE PhD studentship (2013-2017). Awarded LSE PhD Studentship for four years of fees and living expenses.

• Co-director of the Centre for Urban Wellbeing with Professor Jessica Pykett, leading on the theme of Wellbeing Economies
• Deputy Director of Training and Development for Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands
• Supporting School for Public Health Research – Healthy Places, Healthy Planet and Health Inequalities themes
• Supporting Midlands Policy Commission on Health Inequalities
• Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology – Health Psychology