Katherine Morley

Dr. Katherine Morley is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Queensland. She is an epidemiologist with extensive experience in health policy and health services research. Prior to joining UQ, she served as Senior Research Leader and Deputy Director of the Health and Wellbeing Research Group at RAND Europe, and as a Senior Lecturer at King's College London Institute for Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.

Her research focuses on the intersections between healthcare provision and non-health sectors including the criminal justice system and transport infrastructure, particularly regarding mental health and substance use. She specializes in evaluating complex interventions using mixed-methods approaches with administrative data. Her work spans genomic data sharing ethics, mental health impacts of infrastructure projects, substance use disorders, and healthcare utilization patterns among vulnerable populations.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward international collaborative research across multiple disciplines. Her work increasingly focuses on genomic data sharing ethics across 22+ countries, the mental health impacts of major infrastructure projects like high-speed rail, and the complex relationship between substance use and mental health crises. Her research methodology consistently employs mixed-methods approaches combining epidemiological data with policy analysis.

Dr. Morley currently leads several major research projects funded by the National Institute for Health Research UK, including the Evaluation of the 10-year Drug Strategy Investment in Treatment and Recovery System (D-SITAR), The Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Rapid Evaluation Centre, and the Wellbeing Impact Study of HS2 (WISH2). She has supervised doctoral research on topics including equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.

Her research team includes collaborators across multiple continents, with particular emphasis on European and Australian research networks. She has led significant projects for the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the UK Department for Health and Social Care, demonstrating her ability to manage large-scale, internationally funded research initiatives.