2025 was a very exciting year for us, not just because we delivered training to more healthcare professionals and began working on a feasibility randomised controlled trial in Pakistan, but also because we won two awards and were shortlisted for a third!

In May 2025, we attended the 10th anniversary showcase event for impact funding at Cardiff University. It was a day of reflecting on the wonderful work that impact funding has supported, and we heard about some incredible projects making clear impacts in communities, on patient care and science overall. Our ACT-for-PNMH project won an award for Outstanding Partnerships! Our work alongside colleagues in both NHS Wales, NHS England, Malaysia, USA and Pakistan has always been about collaboration, understanding the need for flexibilty and adaptation, and has been built on our values base on inclusivity, curiosity, compassion and creativity. Interestingly, a lot of our partnerships have come about naturally for example, when reading a research paper or attending a conference. Working with like-minded individuals who want to improve the care for perinatal women and birthing persons is rewarding, exciting, and a beautiful space to be a part of!

Roll on to October 2025, where we were shortlisted and won the impact award at the Health Care Research Wales annual conference. Again, we heard inspiring work that was taking place across Wales, and were pleased to see perinatal mental health research recognised as a key area of interest. One of the points raised at the conference was about all the work that goes on behind an outcome of resarch, that the public or others outside the research team may not see. Out ACT-for-PNMH project relies on so many pieces comingtogether, and has a very tiny resource of about 1.5 days a week. So what this project also relies on is a very strong team, and it was a lovely day standing together to acknowledge how much we put into the evidencing of ACT in perinatal mental health.

Lastly, in November 2025, we were shortlisted for a NHS Wales award for research and learning. Sadly, we didn’t win our category, however we felt honoured to be finalists and felt proud to be in a space where colleagues across all the NHS healthboards were engaging in innovative work to better the care provided to ptients, and the culture for staff.

Our work often extends past our immediate research team. It relies on healthcare professionals to train, deliver and evaluate so we couldn’t explore impact without the support of all our partnerships. It has also relied on key stakeholders providing input and feedback to make the training and group delivery/materials what they are, including experts by experince, graphic designers, animation creators and sound editors.

We look forward to sharing what 2026 has in store…