Two ARC leaders appointed Senior Investigators

Professors Catherine Bowen and Mari Carmen Portillo have both been recognised as Senior Investigators by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

This is the second time Professor Bowen has been named a Senior Investigator.

Professor Catherine Bowen

Catherine Bowen and Mari Carmen Portillo are both based in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton, and are both part of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex.

Professor Mari Carmen Portillo

Professor Bowen will be the joint director of a new NIHR ARC Wessex which begins in April 2026, while Professor Portillo will lead on research into multiple long term conditions. They have been serving in the current ARC Wessex for more than six years.

The new ARC Wessex will have five major research areas or themes and centre around five Flagship programmes of work targetting local and national health and care challenges.

Professor Michael Boniface, from the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the University of Southampton is co-director of the new NIHR ARC Wessex with Catherine Bowen.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research has for the last 20 years been transforming the health and care research landscape, for the health and wealth of the nation.

The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for the Wessex region began its work in 2014 as CLAHRC Wessex, then ARC Wessex from 2019 until March 2026, and the New ARC Wessex will run from April 2026 until April 2031.