Professor Richard Hastings
About
Richard Hastings, PhD, FBPsS, FIASSIDD, FAcSS, is a Professor of Psychology and Education and the Cerebra Chair of Family Research in the Centre for Educational Development Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) at the University of Warwick, UK. He is also Monash Warwick Professor in the Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, Australia. Richard is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, and is on more than 10 other editorial boards of developmental disabilities peer review journals.
Contribution and achievements
Richard has published more than 320 peer reviewed journal papers and at least 50 other publications including books, chapters, editorials, and other outputs. Richard was listed in 2020, by a Stanford University led team, in the top 2% of researchers in the world by career citation impact. The analysis, based on whole career impact, has been reported in the journal PLOS Biology Richard was 9th in the world in the research field of “Rehabilitation” - covering most developmental disabilities research. He has also secured (always with colleagues) the equivalent of approximately $30million USD of external funding for research and the translation of research evidence into practice.
Richard’s contribution to research in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities has been in several key sub-fields including: mental health problems and psychological interventions for children and adults; family research, including developing and evaluating support interventions; paid staff/carers; behaviours that challenge; academic interventions in special education settings; and stigma and attitude change. He argues that research and its products and impact are best delivered through partnership and collaboration on multiple levels. Most importantly, co-production with disabled people and/or with family carers – bringing lived experience together with research and theory – should be the bedrock of all of our research in the field. As an example, Richard led a team who carried out the largest randomized controlled trial evaluation of a staff training intervention co-designed with and delivered by people with intellectual disability – Who's Challenging Who.
Collaboration and partnership
Research also requires collaboration and partnership with many research colleagues nationally and internationally and with disability NGOs, to tackle the significant inequalities that still affect people with intellectual disability and their families throughout the world. Richard is proud to have worked at some point with pretty much all UK-based researchers in intellectual disability and with key colleagues internationally, especially from Australia, The Netherlands, Canada, and the USA. His research has also been carried out with NGO partners (who often also part-fund research projects) in the UK and internationally. The research impact that might be attributed to Richard is a product of many hundreds of individuals with intellectual disability, family carers, staff from NGOs, government organizations, staff at research funding organizations, students, and other researchers. Richard is very pleased to accept the AAIDD International Award 2021 with recognition and thanks to everyone he has worked with who has been committed to high quality research to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disability and families.
