Manisha Nair: Driving Change in Maternal and Perinatal Health Worldwide

Manisha Nair is a global leader in maternal and perinatal health research. She founded the award-winning Maternal and perinatal Health Research collaboration, India (MaatHRI) — a pioneering UK–India research platform that connects hospitals across multiple Indian states to collect vital data and conduct large-scale studies aimed at improving health outcomes for mothers and infants. Through MaatHRI, she has built one of the largest maternal health data resources in India, strengthened local research capacity, and fostered long-term partnerships between clinicians and scientists in low-resource settings.

MaatHRI has trained hundreds of clinicians and early-career researchers in India and the UK in research design, data analysis, and clinical skills — empowering local health professionals to generate evidence that can directly inform policy and practice. This emphasis on capacity building and equitable collaboration has been recognised as innovative in global health. Manisha also developed FoCUS Solutions, a freely accessible self-learning training resource that equips non-cardiologists with the skills to perform point-of-care cardiac ultrasound imaging.

Her leadership and influence have been acknowledged through major awards. In 2019, Manisha was honoured with the Asian Women of Achievement Award in the Science category, celebrating her contributions to British life and her role as a cultural and scientific ambassador between the UK and India. MaatHRI’s innovative model was also highly commended in the University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor’s Innovation Awards, highlighting the platform’s creativity and impact.

Manisha is also celebrated for her inspirational leadership — championing research that tackles preventable maternal deaths, championing professional development in global health, and mentoring the next generation of researchers committed to improving health equity worldwide.