During the year, Craig plans to publish articles regarding resilience in the RAF and findings from the Developing Veterans' Resilience Programme, as well as a research paper to inform defence and health policy regarding the mental wellbeing of veterans and elite athletes.
Craig will also undertake new research within elite sport and rehabilitation as part of Loughborough's work as lead partner of the NRC Clinical and Academic Partnership (NCAP).
Funding proposals will be submitted to the National Lottery (via The Forces in Mind Trust) and the ESRC (New Investigator Grant) to upscale the delivery of the Developing Veterans' Resilience Programme to military veterans across the UK and to civilian patients at the planned National Rehabilitation Centre, while consideration will be given to the commercialisation of the programmes in the public and private sectors.
The culmination of the Fellowship will be a paper presenting the effectiveness and impact of the Veterans’ Research Programme delivered to an international audience at the Association of Applied Sports Psychologists’ conference in October 2023.
On receiving the Fellowship, Craig explained: "There are three main reasons why I decided to apply for an ERSC fellowship. Firstly, to continue our work on the Veterans' Resilience Programme and to bid for further funding so that we can help to support more veterans to improve their mental wellbeing and quality of life. Secondly, to apply the resilience programme to other areas including rehabilitation as part of the NRC and elite sport. Finally, to further develop my skills and profile as a researcher.
"I will use the evaluation of the Veteran’s Resilience programme to further refine it to maximise the benefit to other veterans. I will also use the opportunity provided by the Fellowship to bid for further funding to upscale the delivery of the programme at Loughborough University to enable additional veterans to benefit from the programme."