Dr Gemma Pearce’s research transforms healthcare and communities through inclusive, person-centred approaches. Her work has a focus on the treatment, recovery and care of people with long-term conditions. She specialises in invisible and under-diagnosed illnesses that are often a result of health inequalities.

She leads the hEDS together interdisciplinary research group across UK universities, shaping research, practice and policy for hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and related conditions. Her work is funded by the NIHR, British Heart Foundation, and supported by charities and Royal Colleges, earning national recognition for real-world impact.

Gemma is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, serving as a research centre lead and invited expert across institutions. Her projects embed co-creation and public engagement to improve evidence-based care. She was UK lead for two Erasmus+ funded initiatives in  welfare and wellbeing, developed the 3 Co’s Framework (co-define, co-design, co-refine) and is leading the international development of the CORES Co-creation Reporting Standards registered on the Equator Network.

She supervises clinical academic fellows, including NIHR and BHF-funded researchers, and has chaired PhD examinations. She has developed internationally implemented training for professionals on how to embed co-creation in practice and was commissioned by NHS England to train them how to ensure co-creation is an ‘always event’.

Previously, Gemma held an embedded knowledge mobilisation post in Public Health at Coventry City Council, focusing on prevention and accessible care. At Queen Mary University of London, she led the qualitative workstream of an NIHR-funded project on self-management support, co-developing the Taxonomy of Self-Management Support and contributing to the STARI reporting standards for Implementation studies.

Healthcare; Community health; Rehabilitation; Prevention: Long-Term Conditions; Patient-centred care; Co-creation; Public Engagement; Qualitative; Mixed Methods; Implementation; Impact; hypermobility; Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome; Migraine; Physical Activity

My research and teaching align closely with national and international strategic plans focusing on preventative, personalised, inclusive and integrated healthcare and communities. This is underpinned by participatory methodologies where people actively co-create their services, environments, curriculum and products for more tailored, efficient and evidence-based outcomes and practice.