Dr Jo Barnes is a Professor of Injury Prevention, Health and Wellbeing at Loughborough University School of Design and Creative Arts where she is also the Director of Staffing. She specialises in injury prevention and health outcomes post-injury with a focus on all road users including vehicle passengers.
Jo worked as an Emergency Department Nurse before moving into health-related research. She studied at the University of Birmingham gaining a Master’s degree in Medical Science before working in Australia. During her time in Australia, she held the position of Research Fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) Australia. She was integral to setting up the Australian National Crash Injury Study (ANCIS) involving collection and collation of medical data from road-crashes in the state of Victoria. Such data has been used to inform road safety initiatives, education and policy.
On her return to the UK, she was awarded her PhD from Loughborough University, and her thesis explored the outcomes of injuries to survivors of road crashes. The research used a longitudinal cohort methodology to follow up crash victims to measure their health and well-being outcomes over a one-year period.
She has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative methodologies and has utilised these skills across several research studies focussing on road safety whilst as a Research Associate in the Transport Safety Research Centre (TSRC). She started her academic career in 2016 after taking up a post as a lecturer within the SDCA. She is now on the leadership team for both the TSRC and the SDCA.
Recent projects:
- Home Heat Health: Sleep in the City (total grant value £1.2m, 2022-2026, exploring the effects of summertime heat on sleep and wellbeing) Co-investigator.
- Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams (PHIRST), National Institute for Health Research, £2.5m 2022-2027 (Co-investigator).
Jo has led several research projects at Loughborough University including the Impact of Injury Study The Impact of Injuries Study - The University of Nottingham (NIHR CLAHRC NDL funded), Older Public Transport Users study (OPTU, MRC funded), and Targeting Road Injury Prevention study (TRIP, Road Safety Trust funded). She has also collaborated with European Partners on the European Commission TEMPUS Programme initiative entitled ‘Belarusian Road Safety Network (BeSafe)’ which developed Master’s degree programmes in Road Safety at four Universities in the Republic of Belarus.
Jo is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP).
She teaches across SDCA programmes at both undergraduate and post graduate level, including applied research methods, design contexts, injury causation in crashes.
She is also an Academic Advisor for the New Lecture Programme.
Jo is an experienced supervisor and regularly examines PhD theses. Examples of PhD completions are as follows:
“Utilising novel interventions to enhance vascular function with applications for pressure injury prevention” (Alex Robertson 2024)
“Targeting Road Injury Prevention (TRIP): a systems approach to road safety management” (Matt Staton 2024)
“Developing high metabolic clothing for women through user-centred design” (Lindsay D’Arcy 2023)
“Geodemographic Profiling of Culpable Drivers to Target Road Safety Interventions in Serious Injury Crashes” (James Nunn 2022)
“The emergency department response to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear events: a human factors and ergonomics approach” (Saydia Wesley 2020)
“SPAD events: an investigation of human and organisational factors and the underlying stakeholder perspective” (Kate Dixon 2020)