Project team

Dr Jitka Vseteckova

Dr Jitka Vseteckova chairs the Open University Carers Research Group and is Senior Lecturer, Health and Social Care. Jitka leads the dissemination and influencing strategy. Jitka is the founder of the Five Pillars for Ageing Well and the award-winning Take Five to Age Well, with a network of 600+ UK-wide partnerships. Jitka held over £2 mil in research funding (PI&Co-I) and her research aligns with governmental priorities related to integrating health and social care meaningfully, emphasizing prevention and self-care/self-management through inclusive and participatory methodologies, empowering UK-wide ageing populations to learn and stay well. Jitka’s role is multifaceted and encompasses research, teaching, supervision, and collaborations within and beyond the institution locally, regionally, nationally and globally and involves substantive capacity building of academics as well as non-academic audiences and partners. Jitka has recently joined the NIHR-funded ARC Oxford - Thames Valley Capacity Building team, supporting all NIHR ARC themes across the Thames Valley region. NIHR Applied Research Collaboration: Thames Valley – Improving people’s health, wellbeing and care.

Dr Nicole Andelic

Dr Nicole Andelic is an Associate Lecturer and Research Associate with the Open University. Although her background is as a psychologist, her research interests are interdisciplinary and include health and particularly how external stressors affect mental and physical health and its subsequent impact on decision-making. As the Research Associate on Take5Care+, Dr Andelic is responsible for the day-to-day running of the research project.

Dr Sinead Eccles

Dr Sinead Eccles is a chartered Neuropsychologist and Staff Tutor in School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University. Dr Eccles has worked with in academia for over 20 years and has a background in Neuropsychology with a focus on the Biological Basis of eating disorders. She is also very interested in the area of disordered eating and is also conducting research in the area of ‘Intuitive Eating and brain health’.

Dr Georgia Papageorgiou

Dr Georgia Papageorgiou is a Consultant Haematologist at Northampton General Hospital, with an interest in all aspects of haematology. She works within a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the holistic care of patients with haematological conditions.

Maxine Foo

Maxine Foo is a Senior Research Nurse and Lead for Haematology Trials at
Northampton General Hospital. She supports the delivery of clinical research in
haematology, while also working on a range of trials across other specialities.