Beck Taylor

Please see my ORCID and Google Scholar profiles for most recent outputs My research focuses in two main areas: women's health and public health.

Women's Health

This is the central theme of my work, which focuses on improving and integrating maternity and women's health care across the life course, and tackling inequity in women's health. As a public health physician I undertake applied women's health research with a population health, systems and inequity focus. I lead and contribute to a wide portfolio of multidisciplinary, cross-institutional research in this area. I co-lead Warwick's Women's Health Mission, bringing together the University's expertise and experience to tackle major health challenges in women's health. I am passionate about capacity-building and widening collaboration in women's health and maternity research, including involvement of underrepresented professions and and communities. Selected projects include:

NIHR Reproductive Health Policy Research Unit, I lead a national evaluation of commissioning of women's reproductive health care commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (Models of Care Theme Lead, Project Lead). This work follows on from my earlier work NIHR BRACE Early Evaluation of Women's Health Hubs.

NIHR National Maternity Disparities Consortium, a new innovative national collaboration commissioned to tackle inequities in maternity care and outcomes (HOPE West Midlands Capacity-Building Lead, Warwick Lead)

NIHR RfPB study FutureSuture developing elearning to improve competence and confidence of newly registered midwives to manage perineal trauma (Co-PI with early career midwifery researcher).

NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands Maternity Theme, leading and collaborating on diverse projects to understand and improve care including neonatal jaundice, postnatal care and induction of labour.

NIHR HTA ABA-Feed breastfeeding peer support intervention trial (Co-Investigator).

MRC MuM-PreDiCT , exploring experiences and co-designing a care bundle for women with multiple health conditions during pregnancy (qualitative Co-Lead).

NIHR RfPB ViPI developing an intervention to help pregnant women make choices about vaccination (Co-Investigator).

I also supervise and advise a range of research students and fellows working on women's health including:

NIHR Doctoral Fellowship, British-Pakistani women with Gestational Diabetes: Understanding the antenatal and postnatal factors contributing to their future risk (Lead Supervisor).

NIHR Advanced Fellowship Smoking cessation for pregnant women with moderate to severe mental illness: Intervention adaptation and feasibility trial (Advisor).

NIHR Three Schools' Mental Health Programme Postdoctoral Launching Fellowship, Mental health care needs of pregnant women with language barriers (MOTHER) (Advisor).

Public Health:

This arm of my work focuses on strengthening public and population health research and infrastructure across our region and beyond. This includes:

NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration Coventry, which is building infrastructure and culture in our local authority and community (Evaluation Co-lead)

NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands, where I lead a team working to map and prioritise interventions which tackle inequities in access to reproductive health care (Public Health Theme Co-Lead).

NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams, supporting infrastructure to deliver responsive evaluations of innovations in local authorities across the UK (Warwick Co-Lead)

I am an academic public health physician, Honorary Consultant in Public Health and Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. I trained in medicine, working clinically in the NHS, and subsequently completing specialist training in public health alongside doctoral and postdoctoral research at the University of Birmingham. As a clinical academic public health doctor I lead collaborative applied research to improve population health, and provide expertise to regional and national policy and practice.

My research applies quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, and I bring a population health perspective to investigating complex clinical, service and policy questions, particularly in maternity and women's health. Since joining the University of Warwick in 2023 I have built and continue to grow a women's health research portfolio and team based at Warwick Medical School. My work involves close collaboration with researchers, communities, professionals and policymakers from across the UK.

I combine my research portfolio with teaching and supervision of the next generation of researchers and clinicians. I co-lead the Warwick MBChB Social and Population Perspectives Theme. I also supervise a diverse range of undergraduate and postgraduate students, doctors and specialists in training in public health, primary care, midwifery and obstetrics.