Professor Clair Chilvers is Head of R&D in the Midlands and East of England Directorate of Health and Social Care.

She was appointed Regional Director of Research and Development at NHS Executive Trent in October 1999. Nationally, she is Director of the Mental Health Research and Development Portfolio and the National Forensic Mental Health R&D Programme. She is also a member of the National Mental Health Task Force taking forward objectives of the NHS Plan.

Previously she was Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and from 1996 was Dean of the Graduate School. She was a member of the Department of Health Committee on Carcinogenicity of Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment from 1993 to 2000 and a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution from 1994 to 1998.