My collaborative research has been funded by ESRC, EPSRC, NIHR, NWCR and MRF and I have a group of four PhD students working in different areas of data science, health and psychology research. I am also part of a variety research interests groups nationally (e.g. NIHR Statistics and Routine Data Groups).

In 2022-2023 I acted as a Chair of Organising Committee for NIHR Statistics Conference.

Since 2023 I am a Deputy Research Director at Lancaster Medical School.

Team of researchers  (past and present)

Predoctoral

Zoe Glossop, NIHR Funded Predoctoral Fellow (2025-2027)

PhD

Sami Padley, Intersectional Barriers in accessing Eating Disorder Services in the North-West for Autistic LGBTQIA+ individuals: A mixed methods study (ESRC), with Dr Laura Goodwin and Prof Fiona Lobban (2025-Present)

Lauren Halsall, Healthcare use, interventions and longer term outcomes in people with co-occurring bipolar and alcohol use disorders (ESRC), with Dr Laura Goodwin and Prof Steve Jones. (2023-Present)

Yawen Ma, Application and development of statistical models of time-series analysis to advance understanding of early literacy development through analysis of big data on student interactions with research-based game environments. (EPSRC) with Prof Kate Cain. (2021-2025)

Hayley J. Lowther-Payne, Understanding inequalities in access to adult mental health services in the UK during COVID-19: focus on LGBTQ+ (NIHR), with Prof Fiona Lobban. (2021-2025)

Kristina Krieger, Casual Inference Methods for Study of Dynamic Predictors of Mental Health Needs and Patients’ Outcomes (ESRC), with Prof Jo Knight. (2022-2025)

Postdoctoral

Dr David Sudell, Research on project IMmunotherapy and PAlliative CAre Trajectories (IMPACT): a mixed methods study (2024-Present)

 

Research projects

2026, NIHR, Mental Health Research Group, Lancaster (CO-I, Co-lead on Data Science), with Palmer-Claus (PI) and colleagues across Lancaster, London and Manchester.

2024, Data Science Institute, Lancaster University (£5,600) , T-READS Tracking Reading and Educational Attainment through Data, (Co-I), with Cain, K.

2023, NIHR, NIHR Research Alliance Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, RSS, (Co-I, Advisor on Routine Data Aspects) with Rycroft-Malone, J. (PI) and colleagues across Lancaster, Manchester, Liverpool.

2023, NIHR, (~£150,000), EXAMM – EXploration of Alcohol attributable Multimorbidity and associations with Mental health, (Co-I) with Goodwin, L (PI), Knight, J., Lobban, F.

2023, NIHR CRN Network (~£16,000), Addressing the Lancashire and South Cumbria region’s mental health needs through research utilising routinely collected data (Mental Health), with Knight, J., Pennington, A., and Horner, P.

2022, ESRC, Industrial CASE PhD Studentship, (~£80,000), Developing Methodology for Dynamic Predictors of Mental Health Needs and Patients’ Outcomes (PI) with Knight, J.

2022, Medical Research Foundation, (~£100,000), Capturing the daily life experiences and difficulties of adolescents with ADHD, (Co-I, Methods Lead), with Murray, A. & Obsuth, I.

2021, Northwest Cancer Research (~£250,000), IMmunotherapy and PAlliative CAre Trajectories (IMPACT): a mixed methods study (Co-I, Methods Lead) with Brearley, S., Gadoud, A., Walshe, C.)

2021, EPSRC Cross -Disciplinary PhD Studentship, (~£80,000), Learning about early literacy acquisition through student interactions with research-based game environments and statistical time-network analysis, (PI) with Cain, K.

Research Papers

Published/Accepted

Lowther-Payne, H.J., Caton, N., Holt, K., Beckwith, A., Ushakova, A. & Lobban, F. (2025), LGBTQ+ experiences of accessing NHS adult mental health services during COVID-19 in an area of Northwest England: a qualitative interview study, BMC Health Service Research 
 
Halsall, L., Jones, S., Swithenbank, Z., Ushakova, A., & Goodwin, L. (2025). Alcohol use across trials of psychological interventions for bipolar: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 119745.

 Glossop, Z., Campbell, C., Ushakova, A., Dodd, A., & Jones, S. (2024). Personal Recovery With Bipolar Disorder: A Network Analysis. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 31(5).

Lowther-Payne, H.J., Ushakova, A., Beckwith, A., Liberty, C., Edge, R. and Lobban, F., 2023. Understanding inequalities in access to adult mental health services in the UK: a systematic mapping review. BMC Health Services Research, 23(1), p.1042.

Murray, A., Speyer, L., Thye, M., Stewart, T., Obsuth, I., Kane, J., Whyte, K., Devaney, J., Rohde, L.A., Ushakova, A. and Rhodes, S., 2023. Illuminating the daily life experiences of adolescents with and without ADHD: protocol for an ecological momentary assessment study. BMJ open, 13(9), p.077222.

Diprossimo, L., Ushakova, A., Zoski, J., Gamble, H., Irey, R., & Cain, K. 2023. The associations between child and item characteristics, use of vocabulary scaffolds, and reading comprehension in a digital environment: Insights from a big data approach. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 73, 102165.

Murray, A.L., Ushakova, A., Zhu, X., Yang, Y., Xiao, Z., Brown, R., Speyer, L., Ribeaud, D. and Eisner, M., 2023. Who participates in ecological momentary assessment (EMA)?: Predicting participation willingness in a general population health and behaviour EMA study using machine learning techniques. Journal of medical Internet research.

Speyer, L. G., Ushakova, A., Blakemore, S. J., Murray, A. L., & Kievit, R., 2022. Testing for Within× Within and Between× Within Moderation using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models. Structural Equation Modelling.

Ushakova A., Taylor S.A., Killick R., 2022,.Micro-Macro Changepoint Inference for Periodic Data Sequences. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics.

Speyer, L. G., Hall, H. A., Ushakova, A., Luciano, M., Murray, A. L., & Auyeung, B. ,2022. Within-Person Relations between Domains of Socio-Emotional Development during Childhood and Adolescence, Research on Child  and Adolescent Psychopathology.

Murray, A. L., Ushakova, A., Speyer, L., Brown, R., Auyeung, B., & Zhu, X., 2021. Sex/gender differences in individual and joint trajectories of common mental health symptoms in early to middle adolescence. JCPP Advances, e12057.

Speyer, L., Ushakova, A., Hall, A., Luciano, M., Auyeung, B., Murray, A. L., 2021, Analyzing Dynamic Change in Children’s Socio-Emotional Development using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a large UK Longitudinal Study.   Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Speyer, L., Hall, A., Ushakova, A., Murray, A. L., Luciano, M., Auyeung, B., 2021, Longitudinal Effects of Breastfeeding on Parent- and Teacher-Reported Child Behaviour. Archives of Disease in Childhood  

 Speyer, L., Hall, A., Ushakova, A., C., Murray, A. L., Luciano, M., Auyeung, B., 2020, Links between Perinatal Risk Factors and Maternal Psychological Distress: Network Analysis. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica (AOGS)

Ushakova, A. and Mikhaylov,S.J., 2020, Big Data to the Rescue? Challenges in Analysing Granular Household   Electricity Consumption in the United Kingdom. Energy Research and Social Science, Vol 64

Ushakova, A. and Murcio, R., 2018, . Interpreting Smart Meter Data of UK Domestic Energy Consumers. In Longley P., Cheshire J., Singleton A, Consumer Data Research (pp. 120-137), London: UCL Press.  ISBN: 9781787353886

Ushakova, A. and Mikhaylov,S.J., 2018, Predicting Energy Customer Vulnerability from Consumption Behavior, Working Paper, Consumer Data Research Centre