Magdalena is a sociologist in inclusion health based at LSHTM. She leads a mixed-method programme of research on health interventions for people who use heroin and crack cocaine in the UK, including through NIHR projects. She has 18 years’ experience in qualitative and participatory research with people who use drugs, holds the 2020 Society for the Study of Addiction Award for Impact on Policy and Practice and in 2022 was awarded a Membership through Distinction of the Faculty of Public Health.

Lucy Platt is Professor of Public Health Epidemiology at LSHTM. Her research focuses on examining how social and health policies and interventions influence people who sell sex and/or inject drugs’ vulnerability to blood-borne viruses, sexually transmitted infections and other health harms.

Jenny is a Senior Lecturer in Primary Care, and has expertise in intervention development in community pharmacies including online training development, previous clinical experience in hospital pharmacy and current clinical experience in a community drug treatment team.

Viv is currently Professor of Public Health at the Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moore University. Prior to this he worked at Public Health England, and he has held academic posts at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, and the University of Birmingham. He has over 25 years’ experience of research and public health practice focused on understanding the health issues associated with drug use and the responses to these. His research has focused on the harms associated with the injection of drugs, particularly infections, and preventing drug-related deaths. His research interests also include the use of human enhancement drugs, sexualised drug use, sexual health, and the well-being of LGBT+ communities.

Niamh is Executive Director of Release, the UK’s centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law. Niamh has co-authored a number of Release’s policy papers including “A Quite Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation across the Globe" and "The Colour of Injustice: "Race’, drugs and law enforcement in England and Wales”.  Niamh is an Associate Member of the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Middlesex University. She is also a committee member for DrugScience and has been a technical advisor to the Global Commission on Drug Policy. She is regularly asked to comment in the media on drug policy. Niamh started at Release as a legal advisor, supporting the legal rights of people who use drugs, especially those who have a history of drug dependency.

Joanna is Director, Centre for Evaluation and Associate Professor in Sexual & Reproductive Health. Joanna has over 25 years’ international research experience in the fields of HIV, sexual and reproductive behaviour, and the social determinants of risk among vulnerable and hard-t-reach groups, particularly sex workers and mobile populations.

Cedomir is Research Fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a qualitative researcher specialising in the study of everyday life and practice, cultural studies, and resistance.

Caitlynne is a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine specializing in quantitative analysis.  She has experience in HIV surveillance and global sexual and reproductive health research, particularly among adolescents.

Sujit is an epidemiologist and project statistician who has interest in policy-relevant research with marginalised populations in the UK and in low- and middle-income settings. In addition to SIPP, he supports the quantitative component of the Homeless Health Peer Advocate evaluation.

Sedona is a health economist, with a research focus on economic evaluation in low- and middle-income settings. Her particular interest is in the economic impact of substantial long-term health shocks, both at the provider level and within the household. Her research to date has been focused on measurement and understanding of the costs of chronic illness – including HIV, TB, chronic non-communicable diseases, and HCV.

Philippe is originally from France and has been in the UK for over thirty years, mainly in his adopted and beloved Birmingham. He has worked with people who use drugs for nearly two decades, as a drug worker and trainer, following a decade and a half of injecting drugs. He is a strong harm reduction advocate who firmly believes in helping people, as opposed to chastising them. He is currently the Hepatitis C Trust Outreach and Pharmacy Testing Manager for the West Midlands Operation Delivery Network, as well as Chair of the National Needle Exchange Forum.

He was recently appointed Board Trustee for Addiction Professionals, where he hopes to bring policy changes for the substance misuse sector. Philippe has a wealth of experience in working with people who inject drugs, especially heroin and crack cocaine. He specialises in blood borne viruses, naloxone and safer use of drugs. He has won industry and Police awards for his work with crack users in inner city Birmingham. He has developed treatment pathways for crack users and trained health professionals on crack cocaine Harm Reduction.

Lou works for Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust as the Team Leader for The Health Shop, which is a sexual health and drug harm reduction service and have been in the field for nearly twenty years.  She is passionate about health inequalities and strive to find creative ways to support people to improve their health in Nottingham city. Lou is proud to have worked on a number of specific harm reduction projects including reducing barriers for sexual health screening, smoking cessation for people who use drugs and Hepatitis C elimination for Nottingham Recovery Network. We have been trying to improve harm reduction services for people who smoke crack for a long time, so am really excited to be part of the SIPP project.

Andrew has been working in harm reduction for over 30 years. Following a decade of clinical practice as a community drug worker delivering OST and needle exchange, in 2002 he founded Social Enterprise Exchange Supplies to develop equipment to improve harm reduction by better serving the needs of people who inject drugs, and provide employment and training to people who inject drugs. Exchange Supplies provide on-site peer delivered needle and syringe programme for their local community, and are the equipment suppliers to the SIPP study sites.

Holly is the Service Co-ordinator at POW Nottingham. POW is a peer-funded charity set up in 1990 to support sex workers and those affected by sex work. POW supports sex workers from all backgrounds in Nottingham, including sex workers who are also substance users. She has worked at POW for 6 years in multiple roles including as a drop-in worker, outreach worker, progression worker and now as part of the management team. POW are not an exiting-focused charity, and harm minimisation is at the forefront of everything that we do to support sex workers.

Mat is Technical Support Consultant specialising in drugs / HIV in international development. I coordinated a team of peer writers to research and write the first draft of UNODC WHO UNAIDS HIV Prevention, treatment, care and support for people who use stimulant drugs technical guide. He is completing a 3-part webinar toolkit on stimulants and HIV support UNODC to promote the intervention in the Guide. In the UK Mat championed crack harm reduction developing new practice and peer support tools that he promoted through a t raining programme. Mat was the founder of the Crack Squad - peer educators promoting self-control and harm reduction. He created a training initiative between the Crack Squad and RCGP that led to the development of "Guidance for working with cocaine and crack users in primary care". Mat functions as a bridgebuilder helping to create a dynamic interaction between lived and learned experience. He works for the drug user rights movement and have developed peer training programmes and resources.

Peter Furlong is the National Harm Reduction lead for Change Grow Live (CGL) and has been working in Drug services since the late 1990s. Starting as a volunteer Peter has worked across a range of frontline roles including outreach worker, needle and syringe exchange, drug worker, services manager and  NW Regional Development Manager. Peter developed a Peer to Peer harm reduction program in Merseyside in 2007 that won a national training award and was instrumental in pioneering the development of take-home naloxone in Sefton in 2010, one of the first services in the country to pilot its first provision as a core intervention. With a passion for research, Peter led on the introduction of nasal naloxone (nyxoid) for CGL services in 2019 and its evaluation report independently evaluated by the University of Manchester (2020). Peter currently works in the clinical directorate of CGL leading on Harm Reduction Strategy national for CGL.

Ian is a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with an interest in economic evaluations of health and public health interventions. He is supporting the economic evaluation of the Safe Inhalation Pipe Provision project as well assessing novel tuberculosis diagnostic strategies in South Africa. His prior experience includes advising Malawi's Ministry of Health on strategic purchasing, resource mobilization, and public financial management during his tenure with the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Ian holds a Master's degree in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor's degree in Economics and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews. 

Casey Sharpe is a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with a focus on qualitative analysis and systematic reviews. She has experience conducting and communicating research in a national policy environment, working previously for the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities/Public Health England, and extensive knowledge on alcohol harm prevention and commercial determinants of health.