Ellen V Backhouse (PhD)

Stroke Association Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

  • Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
  • Edinburgh Imaging
  • UK DRI

Contact details

Address

Street

Chancellor's Building, Edinburgh Bioquarter

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH16 4SB

Background

Ellen has over 10 years of experience recruiting patients with physical and mental health conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, VCI, and stroke, into multi-centre academic research studies and commercial clinical trials. Previously, she served as Research Coordinator and later Acting Study Manager for the Rates, Risks and Routes to Reduce Vascular Dementia (R4VaD) study, a UK-wide multicentre observational project within the Stroke Association, BHF, and Alzheimer’s Society Priority Programme in Vascular Dementia, where she was responsible for patient recruitment, assessment, and overall study coordination across 53 sites in the UK. 

Qualifications

PhD Clinical Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh

MSc Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Manchester

BSc (Hons) Psychology (International), University of Leeds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Undergraduate teaching

Supervisor, BMS Honours Student Projects

Current research interests

Ellen is currently a Stroke Association Post-doctoral Research Fellow investigating ways to improve the understanding and prediction of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) after stroke.

Current project grants

Awarding body: Stroke Association
Grantholders: Backhouse EV, Boardman J, Markus H, Wardlaw JM
Title: Improving the prediction of vascular cognitive impairment: a precision approach.
Award amount: £234,405
Role: Lead Applicant/Principal Investigator
Dates: April 2025- present

Past project grants

Awarding body: Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, PhD studentship
Title: Early life risk factors for cerebrovascular disease and depressive symptoms in later life.
Award amount: £54,000
Role: PhD student
Dates: 2014-2018

Awarding body: Scottish Imaging Network – A Platform for Scientific Excellence Postdoctoral and Early Career Exchange
Travel Grant.
Title: Neuropsychiatric symptoms as a sign of small vessel disease progression in cognitive impairment
Award amount: £3,800
Role: Visit to collaborators at AMC Amsterdam
Dates: 2016