Yvonne Birks is a professor of Applied Social Care Research at the University of York and an executive director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research.
She has a professional background in nursing and worked in patient safety safety research before moving to social care in 2013. Her interests are in the social care workforce, older people, self funding, carers and dementia. She directs an NIHR HS&DR partnership, The Curiosity Partnership, which is a partnership between 4 local authorities and 4 Universities in Yorkshire and Humber to build research capacity in adult social care.