GM.Digital's 2025 Wrapped

It's been an exciting year for digital mental health research here at GMDigital. In this blog post, our team share the projects they have been most proud of this year and what they are looking forward to in 2026.

Two-thirds of the GM.Digital team. From left to right: Thomas Price, Charlie Stockton Powdrell, Heidi Tranter, and Mia Vines Booth at the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust Headquarters.

Heidi Tranter, GM.Digital Manager 

Throughout 2025, my third year at GM.Digital, the unit has developed a lot. Some of the biggest changes were the growth of Youth Connection and Volunteer Digital Navigator programmes and our support with the UK Mental Health Goals Programme. I have very much enjoyed delivering the Youth Connection sessions and love working with the group to understand the research process and how digital tech can support mental health! The group has definitely grown in number;s, we now have ~20 young people attending weekly online sessions, which we are extremely proud of! ,

One of the biggest projects the unit has continued to lead on throughout 2025 is EN-CAMHS 2. We successfully completed Work Package 1 of the project and have worked extremely hard to make sure the correct approvals are in place for the digital referral tool to go live for the pilot implementation in 2026! 

Going into 2026, I am especially looking forward to: 

• Continuing the growth of Youth Connection and Volunteer Digital Navigators programmes. 

• Piloting the EN-CAMHS 2 digital referral tool with CAMHS teams across England and Wales. 

• GM.Digital supporting with the UK Mental Health Goals Programme. 

• Improving the online presence of GM.Digital and how we engage with people about our research. 

Thomas Price, Research Associate

Since joining the research unit in July this year, I have been on quite a journey. In the last 6 months, I have spent my time supporting the EN-CAMHS 2 project, our Young People’s advisory group (Youth Connection), and our superb Volunteer Digital Navigators.  

I’m extremely proud of all the progress we’ve made, although particular highlights are: refining the EN-CAMHS 2 online referral tool through usability and accessibility testing with our advisory groups (perhaps my EDI roots showing); creating a digital mental health research skills course for Youth Connection members; and integrating our voluntary support gurus, the Volunteer Digital Navigators, into Greater Manchester’s Mental Health services where they are supporting service users to access better care by using innovative health technology.  

As the year continues to rush toward its end, I’m starting to consider what next year may hold. With much anticipation, I’m looking forward to the release of the EN-CAMHS 2 referral tool, its use and hearing what people thought about it. I’m looking forward to developing some of the other threads with Youth Connection, specifically; coordinating special interest sessions and increasing the autonomy of the group. Finally, I’ve been imagining the headlines for our Volunteer Digital Navigators for some time, how, with their support, service users’ health has been improved through the use of technology and better care. 

Charlie Stockton-Powdrell, Co-Director 

2025 has been a year of many changes for the GM.Digital Research Unit. I re-joined the Unit in March 2025 as Co-Director, and it is great to be back. But we also said goodbye to several members of the team earlier in the year, the most significant being the departure of Pauline Whelan as our Co-Director. I’m delighted that Pauline has remained part of the team in a Technical Advisory capacity, as she has taken on new roles both as Chief Operating Officer for CareLoop Health and Co-Lead for the Digital Innovation work stream for the Mental Health Goals Programme. These remain important opportunities for us to continue to work with Pauline and to benefit from her expertise.   

I’m excited to see what 2026 has in store, especially for our Digital Navigator programme, our Youth Connections group, the EN-CAMHS 2 pilot implementation and our contribution to the Mental Health Goals Programme. 

Marta Chmielowska, Research Fellow 

Over the past year, I’ve focused on how digital health tools are adopted and sustained across the NHS. This included a national review of the barriers and enablers to moving tools from pilot into procurement, drawing on discussions with NHS England, NICE, and academic and industry partners, as well as relevant policy documents. The work mapped adoption pathways, highlighted where progress tends to stall, and fed into funding applications and publications. 

I also led a system-mapping exercise for a new digital referral tool for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services developed by my team. This looked at how the tool fits with existing referral routes and NHS systems, with a view to long-term sustainability and wider adoption by providers and commissioners. 

One piece of work I’m particularly proud of is leading the development and roll-out of the Equity Audit Tool (EAT), which allows research teams to monitor participation in clinical trials in real time and reflect on representativeness during recruitment, rather than only at the end of a study. 

Looking ahead to 2026, I’m keen to support implementation and sustained use of EAT beyond individual studies and to continue contributing to GM.Digital’s work on inclusive, evidence-based digital health. 

Kathryn Abel, Director

This year, I’m proud of our work on EN-CAMHS 2 and FORESIGHT, where we have overcome many challenges in relation to GP feedback on how children and young people get referred into CAMHS, and whether we can seamlessly integrate the new tool into services across the country. In addition, the WORSHIP III (NIHR REF) trial is moving forward through ongoing conversations with relevant stakeholders ahead of our final NIHR meeting in late January. 

Outside of these projects, I’m proud of the great roundtable I took part in in London with author and public speaker, Victoria Betton, among many other stakeholders, as well as the WORSHIP III stakeholder roundtable for NIHR. I have also given many talks in Europe and UK, most recently visiting Brussels for a Moving Europe podcast on the crisis in mental health in Europe - the first of many, we hope, to showcase our work as a team. 

Shifting to a more sophisticated and well-rounded communications strategy is really something I am looking forward to. Better digital communications will help us think more clearly about how all the different groups we work across, including GM.Digital, the Centre for Women's Mental Health, The Goals Programme and CYP Mental Health Mission. 

Getting the five workstreams of the new Mental Health Goals Programme developed and funded through the Medical Research Council was a major achievement, as was being a co-investigator and author on the important Youth Future Foundation report into trends in CYP Mental Health. 

Next year, I’m looking forward to the Digital Workstream of the Goals Program, led by Pauline Whelan and Trina Histon; and the Data Observatory led by Matthias Pierce. These are two pieces of work which I am particularly keen to see coming to fruition and develop in ways that will create a genuine step towards change in how we do research in mental health in the UK.  

I will also be mentoring for the Academy of Medical Sciences, which I am looking forward to. At this stage in my career, being able to support the careers of promising young researchers is extremely satisfying and I am glad to be able to spend my time doing this. 

So lots to look forward to indeed!