Author
Nicole is a graduate biomedical scientist who works as research administrator here at the CRRC. Alongside this role, she is an admin / healthcare assistant in one of our clinics and a bank call handler for our aftercare service. Nicole is extremely passionate about women’s healthcare and has built her foundation through combining evidence-based knowledge, clinical experience and research expertise.
As we start our new financial year at BPAS, we take this opportunity to reflect on our collective achievements in 2024/25. It has been an exceptional year for the Centre for Reproductive Research and Communication (CRRC), and we are proud of all we have accomplished.
In 2024-25, we welcomed three new CRRC team members: Chloe Hanse as a Research and Engagement Lead, Po Ruby, as Evaluation Researcher, and me, Nicole Gray, as Research Administrator.
Across the team, we published 19 academic papers including ‘Assessing the Impact of Routine Requirement for In-Person Abortion Care for Adolescents in England and Wales: A Prepost Evaluation’ and ‘Patient experiences of undergoing abortion with and without an ultrasound scan in Britain’. We also contributed to the evidence base through papers such as ‘Patient and public involvement in abortion research: reflections from the Shaping Abortion for Change (SACHA) study’ and ‘Self-reported contraceptive method use at conception among patients presenting for abortion in England: a cross-sectional analysis comparing 2018 and 2023’. This is just a small selection of our publications, which are all available on our website page.
A new Integrated Research and Innovation Strategy for 2025-2030 was also developed by the team which was launched in March 2025. In the development stage of the strategy, our team engaged with a wide range of stakeholders. This was to ensure we, as a research centre, can meet the needs of our staff and patient population alongside the wider sector. To disseminate the strategy, we launched internally at a BPAS conference, hosted an event with 50 stakeholders from the sector, and visited clinics and telehubs within BPAS to encourage staff involvement. If you would like to know more about the strategy and how it was created, please read Dr Patricia Lohr’s blog here.
In addition to our internal projects, we continue to facilitate external research. We are currently supporting a master’s student, Denise Blair, with her study; ‘Exploring the lived experiences of black women in London who have had a termination of pregnancy, a qualitative study.’ Alongside this, we are supporting a staff member’s project; ‘mixed-methods study evaluating the implementation of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy during abortion care’. You can read about Charlotte Glynn’s project here. We are excited to continue these studies in the new year and look forward to sharing the findings in due course.
Beyond our publication and research strategy work, we also hosted a key event ‘Experiences and Expectations of Pain with Early Medical Abortion’. We brought together abortion providers, researchers, public health professionals, health service managers and representatives from NHS England to explore both challenges and opportunities in abortion pain research, clinical practice and policy. You can read about the research presented by our panellists in our specially commissioned blog series. The research priorities and clinical development areas identified during this event will support healthcare providers, academics and third-sector organisations. Our goal going forward from this event is to improve the EMA experience and empower patients to make informed, evidence-based decisions about their care. You can read more about the research panel, workshop, and identified priorities in our report.
While we celebrate our accomplishments, we also bid farewell to our Evaluation Researcher, Hannah McCulloch. Hannah has made a significant contribution to research and evaluations at BPAS. Her recent publication, Expectations and Experiences of Pain During Medical Abortion at Home: A Secondary, Mixed-Methods Analysis of a Patient Survey in England and Wales, received international media coverage and has already made an impact in the field. We are confident her work will continue to influence the improvement of abortion care across the UK.
Looking ahead to 2025/26 we are excited to continue our work on our studies Improving At-Home Medical Abortion Experience with a Digitally Enabled AI Chatbot: A Scoping Study and Uptake of contraceptive counselling and methods after medical abortion via telemedicine: A cross-sectional evaluation of anticipated and actual use six weeks post-abortion, among others. We look forward to sharing and actioning the insights from these studies.
For ongoing updates about our research, events, and publications, please follow us on LinkedIn, X , BlueSky and subscribe to our newsletter. If you would like to get in touch or are interested in writing a research blog, we would be delighted to hear from you —please contact us at research@bpas.org.