Introduction
Prof Montgomery is Professor of Social Intervention at Birmingham University having been at Oxford University for 20 years where he was Professor of Psycho-social Intervention. His work is methodologically based in three main areas: Systematic Reviews, Trials (many of them RCTs) and Methods Advances in Complex Interventions. Topically, his work is wide ranging and includes Sleep where he originally did his doctorate, Education Interventions for Children, Empowerment Interventions for Women in LMICs, as well as broader policy advice for policymakers.
He is a member of the Cross-Whitehall Trial Advice Panel, Cabinet Office, Government of the United Kingdom and is an Affiliate Professor, Department of Family Studies, University of Malta. Paul is also on the Advisory Panel of two “What Works Centres” -Wellbeing and Children’s Social Care.
Currently Prof Montgomery sits on NIHR and ESRC panels and is an Editor for the International Journal of Social Welfare and for the Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems Group (DPLPG) of the Cochrane Collaboration.
Expert
Paul's methodological work is having a considerable impact on the ways that randomised trials and systematic reviews are conducted and reported in the rapidly growing field of social intervention. He has recently spearheaded the development of CONSORT-SPI, a reporting guideline for randomised trials of complex psychological and social interventions. He also led the development of the Oxford Implementation Index, and has researched the significance and utility of so-called 'empty reviews' (i.e., systematic reviews which find no studies eligible for inclusion). Currently he is leading the GRADE Extension for Complex Interventions funded by ESRC.
Behavioural Interventions
Paul's study of behavioural interventions began with his doctoral work evaluating Brief Interventions for sleep problems, and has evolved into a large, successful programme of systematic reviews and (mostly) randomised trials. Of note, recently he developed and piloted an evidence-based training manual to support democratic policing in Israel. As well, following promising results in a recent pilot study in Ghana, Paul (with colleagues at the Saïd Business School) is conducting a large trial of puberty education and sanitary pad provision for girls' empowerment, this time in Uganda.
Fields of expertise: Economic policy / inclusive economic development, Evidence for policy / knowledge valorization, Monitoring and evaluation