Stephen Shannon

Dr. Stephen Shannon is a Senior Lecturer at Ulster University (UU) in the School of Sport, a Chartered Psychologist within the BPS, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

2014: Awarded £83,000 from the Coca Cola Foundation for an evaluation of the Sport for LIFE programme on children’s well-being.
2016: Awarded £18,000 from Sport Northern Ireland for a review of mental health and wellbeing promotion within and through sport.
2017: Awarded £15,000 enabling grant from the Public Health Agency for the promotion of resilience, well-being and help-seeking through sport (i.e., State of Mind psychoeducational intervention).
2018: Awarded £32,500 grant from Sport Northern Ireland for delivering and assessment of female leadership programmes in sport.
2018: Awarded £1,000 from Sported for an evaluation of a female development programme.
2019: Awarded £15,000 from UEFA for studying the effect of transitional phases on elite footballers’ mental health.
2019: Awarded £3,800 from Ulster University for a Civic Impact Fund of reducing mental health stigma in the community.
2022: Awarded 47,754 from The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) for a mental wellbeing capacity building programme.
2022: Awarded £40,100 from EANI Education Authority Northern Ireland for ‘The Daily Mile’: Children’s Health & Wellbeing in Northern Ireland.
2024: Awarded £2,007,682.60, Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Unsuccessful: Grant (PI) £1,621,924, Medical Research Council, UKRI. Grant (PI) for £150,000 for development of a resistance exercise measure (World Cancer Research Fund). Grant (PI) for £50,000 for a longitudinal study on student mental health (SMARTEN).

I coordinate, teach, and project supervise several undergraduate and postgraduate modules on behaviour change and mental health, underpinned by a student-centric and participatory learning philosophy. I was one of three staff shortlisted for UU’s Inspirational Educator Award in the 2022 LTA.

Stephen has published >40 peer-reviewed articles, including an international consensus statement on mental health in sport, and several randomised controlled trials. He contributed to two Northern Ireland policy documents on mental health and sport, provided evidence to a House of Lords Select Committee for Sport and Recreation, and contributed to a REF 2021 impact case study.

Stephen has supervised three PhD students to completion, with a further four ongoing. He has fulfilled internal faculty examiner duties for five PhD students, and currently externally examines at Deakin University, Australia