Dame Melanie J Davies DBE

• Professor Dame Melanie J Davies DBE, MB ChB, MD, FRCP, FRCGP, FMedSci, Professor of Diabetes Medicine at University of Leicester.

• Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre (LDC)

• Director of NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre since 2017, (re-funded 2023)

• Director of the CRDC UK Network

• Director of NIHR Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC): Leicestershire and Northamptonshire

• NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus 

• Associate Director of Research & Innovation at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

• NIHR Research Delivery Network National Speciality Lead for Diabetes, Metabolic and Endocrine 

• Initiated the DESMOND collaborative, led the development of the intervention and designed and obtained funding for a RCT which was then the largest global trial of a structured self-management programme ever conducted in T2DM.

Steering groups

• Member of the Wellcome DTP Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group

• Chair – Research Appraisal Panel – Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office 2023 

• Lord O’Shaughnessy’s Review – Independent Advice on Clinical Trials Group

• Member of the EASD Guidelines Oversight Committee Steering Group

• Co-Chair – ADA/EASD Writing Group, for the 2022 ADA-EASD Guidelines on the Management of Hyperglycaemia in Type 2 Diabetes (2022 and 2025)

Awards

• Awarded the CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2016 New Year’s Honour’s List for services to diabetes research.

• American Diabetes Association’s 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award

• Awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in The King’s Birthday Honours List in June 2026.

Professor Davies’ research interests include:

• Lifestyle and physical activity in prevention of chronic disease

• Novel glucose lowering therapies

• Sedentary behaviour and health

• Type 2 Diabetes Melitus in younger patients

• Clinical trial design

• Complex interventions and self-management for diabetes prevention

Professor Davies has developed a growing research team at Leicester Diabetes Centre and has personally invested a lot of time in training, supporting, and mentoring young researchers. She has set up, and is Course Co-Director for, an MSc for Diabetes and the BMJ University of Leicester Diploma, both awarded recognition by the International Diabetes Federation. 

Professor Davies is Programme Director for the University of Leicester Diabetes by Distance Learning MSc, which, since its’  first intake in 2017, has grown to include 62 MSc, 35 PGCert and 11 PGDip students from 17 countries around the globe.

Professor Davies is the Trust lead clinician and founder of EDEN (Effective DiabEtes Now) programme, which is now RCGP accredited. Since 2017, EDEN has received 12 national awards including the QiC 2019 Diabetes Education Award. EDEN has significantly contributed to the training of Primary Care Diabetes Teams in Leicester, nationally and internationally. In addition, she has been invited to speak at most international diabetes congresses including ADA, EASD and IDF (Pan African, Asian).

Professor Davies is responsible for the training and supervising a number of young researchers: 28 over the last seven years. 12 of these researchers have obtained PhDs; five of the research fellows have been awarded prestigious national awards including Diabetes UK Young Researcher of the Year, and four have been awarded prestigious external Research Fellowships. 

Professor Davies continues to be actively involved in teaching under- and postgraduate medical students. She has served as an Internal Examiner MD Leicester and External for PhD and MD in Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Warwick, Bristol and Melbourne, Australia, 2008-current. Professor Davies is a trained mentor with the Academy of Medical Sciences, with four mentees in the last two years. She informally provides mentorship for a number of aspiring female academics from clinical, allied HCP and non-clinical backgrounds.

Professor Davies has contributed actively to the University’s Courageous Conversation series and as a mentor for both internal and external candidates to NIHR Fellowship and Professor schemes, including the successful application of Anvesha Singh (Advanced Clinical Fellowship), Gerry McCann (NIHR Professorship) and Hannah Young (Advanced Clinical Fellowship).

• Diabetes

• Obesity

• Cardiovascular Disease

• Sedentary Behaviour

• Physical Activity