Psychology finalists | RCI Subject Awards 2026

Winner · Psychology Subject Award 2026

Willem Kuyken

University of Oxford

“Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial”

Evidence Based Mental Health · 2022 · 229 citations

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The winner has been announced. Each subject has ten finalist universities; each is represented by an academic and a project identified from the open scholarly record, with the paper cited so every claim can be checked. Each finalist's exact position on the subject index is shown below. The winner was decided by editorial review and announced on 15 September 2026. The Subject Awards are exclusive to partner universities.

The finalists

Ten universities. Ten projects. Ten academics.

Willem Kuyken

🇬🇧 Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford · Subject Award Winner 2026 Co-author

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial

Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science at the University of Oxford, Willem Kuyken researches how psychological approaches prevent depression. He led the multi-institution MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial with Cambridge, UCL, Exeter and King's College London, evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training for adolescent mental health.

Evidence Based Mental Health · 2022 · 229 citations

Brenda W.J.H. Penninx

🇳🇱 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · Corresponding author

How COVID-19 shaped mental health: from infection to pandemic effects

This review considers the mental health consequences of COVID-19 at two levels: the effects of infection itself, and the effects of living through a pandemic. Keeping those strands apart matters, because they arise through different routes and call for quite different responses from clinicians and from policy.

Nature Medicine · 2022 · 453 citations · co-authors across 2 countries

Michael Y. Ni

🇭🇰 Chinese University of Hong Kong · Corresponding author

Mental disorders following COVID-19 and other epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Beyond its direct physical toll, COVID-19 placed a heavy burden on mental health, and earlier epidemics offer a point of comparison. Searching five databases and synthesising prevalence estimates from probability samples during COVID-19 and past outbreaks, the study assembles a picture of mental disorder in the general community rather than only among patients already in care.

Translational Psychiatry · 2022 · 179 citations · co-authors across 5 countries

Matthew Hotopf

🇬🇧 Executive Dean, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience; Professor of General Hospital Psychiatry, King's College London · Co-author

Mental health of healthcare workers in England during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic: The NHS CHECK study cohort

Executive Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London and Professor of General Hospital Psychiatry, Matthew Hotopf studies links between mental and physical health. His multi-university NHS CHECK cohort tracked the mental health of healthcare workers in England across the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PLOS One · 2026 · 1 citations

David M. Frost

🇬🇧 University College London · Corresponding author

Minority stress theory: Application, critique, and continued relevance

Minority stress theory, first articulated in integrative form in 2003, explains how social, psychological and structural factors produce mental health inequalities facing sexual minority populations. Reviewing two decades of developments, the work weighs critiques and applications of the theory and reflects on its continued relevance amid rapidly changing social and policy contexts.

Current Opinion in Psychology · 2023 · 875 citations · co-authors across 2 countries

Alex S. Keuroghlian

🇺🇸 Harvard University · Senior author

Factors Leading to “Detransition” Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People in the United States: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

Data on transgender and gender diverse people who return to living as their sex assigned at birth have been scarce, leaving the topic to argument rather than evidence. Drawing on the US Transgender Survey of 27,715 adults, the study examines how many reported a history of detransition and the reasons they gave, combining multiple-choice answers with analysis of their own written responses.

LGBT Health · 2021 · 217 citations

Mathias Allemand

🇨🇭 University of Zurich · Corresponding author

Changing personality traits with the help of a digital personality change intervention

Personality traits carry real consequences and can shift across a lifetime, but whether people can deliberately change them was unsettled. A three-month digital intervention was tested in a randomised controlled trial with 1,523 participants: the intervention group changed more than controls and in the directions they intended, changes that people close to them also noticed and that were still present three months later.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 268 citations · co-authors across 3 countries

Lourens Waldorp

🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam · Senior author

Comparing network structures on three aspects: A permutation test.

Psychologists increasingly model constructs as networks of interacting parts, and have moved from describing single networks to comparing them across populations, but the statistical tools were missing. This article presents the network comparison test, which uses resampling-based permutation testing to compare two independent data sets on network structure, the strength of individual connections, and overall strength.

Psychological Methods · 2022 · 1,429 citations · co-authors across 4 countries

Nick Haslam

🇦🇺 Professor of Psychology, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne · Co-author

Dehumanization: Beyond the Intergroup to the Interpersonal

Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Nick Haslam studies dehumanisation, stigma and the shifting boundaries of psychological concepts. His collaborative work with colleagues at Deakin University and the University of Minnesota extends dehumanisation research beyond intergroup conflict to everyday interpersonal relationships, showing how subtle denials of humanity shape social life.

Current Directions in Psychological Science · 2023 · 21 citations

#10

Peter B. Jones

🇬🇧 University of Cambridge · Senior author

Mindfulness-based programmes for mental health promotion in adults in nonclinical settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Mindfulness-based programmes are being widely implemented to reduce stress in nonclinical settings, yet a comprehensive evidence synthesis had been lacking. Following a detailed preregistered protocol developed with public and professional stakeholders, the team searched thirteen databases and systematically reviewed randomised controlled trials to assess whether such programmes actually promote mental health compared with no intervention or alternatives.

PLoS Medicine · 2021 · 320 citations · co-authors across 4 countries

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The 2026 Subject Awards have been decided.

Partners verify their data and feature their academics. Finalists were identified from open data; winners were decided by our editorial team and announced on 15 September 2026.

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