Kathryn Higgins is the Director of the cross Faculty Queen's Communities and Place Initiative and professor of Social Science and Health in the School of Social Science Education and Social Work Queen’s University Belfast. Kathryn is an experienced research leader having previously led the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation and the Institute for Child Care Research. Kathryn has an established research reputation in the areas of substance use and addictive behavior and also has been active in the field of programme evaluation/implementation science. She continues to lead the now 18-year longitudinal study, known as the Belfast Youth Development Study, which has acted as a focal point for collaborations with external partners and for new, policy led research. She has developed a cadre of work over the past ten+ years on Public Engagement Programme evaluation & implementation Science, evaluating interventions designed to improve child and adolescent development. These include RCTs of school- and community-based interventions.  Her research programmes, publications and international conference contributions have examined the policy and evidence base for interventions including substance misuse, mental health, alcohol prevention and the mechanisms for implementing evidence based practice and policy more generally. She has attracted funding from prestigious sources such as the National Institute for Health Research, MRC and ESRC.  Kathryn teaches on the MSc on Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders