ORCID: 0000-0002-9229-9913
Niina is a children’s allied health professional leading large-scale, dynamic, interdisciplinary research to help young children (0-5yrs) with their everyday health behaviours - especially active play, sleep, and self-care.
Niina joined CHORAL in 2026, in the national-first paediatric clinical academic allied health Chair. She works across the University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust – with focus on growing, embedding and supporting research led by front-line practitioners and clinical teams.
Niina’s research mirrors her practice experience: it is transdiagnostic, emphasises non-pharmacological health technologies, and is oriented to prevention. She uses the WHO biopsychosocial approach, meaning her work takes a broad view of child development and health outcomes. All her projects are collaborative, and most are funded by NIHR and UKRI in a form of research project grants, fellowships and infrastructure awards (with a life-time research income in excess of £56m). Full list of previous and current work can be found at the ORCID (link, above).
Ultimately, Niina work is motivated by interdisciplinary contributions to knowledge, practice, policy and the children’s wellbeing. She is passionate about developing research capacity, and increasing the quality and amount of child health research. She believes working together with colleagues from different disciplines, backgrounds and career stages is the best way to achieve this.
