Paul Nankivell is a Senior Clinical lecturer in the Institute of cancer and genomic sciences, at the University of Birmingham and a consultant of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery in the department of Otolaryngology, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He completed his Doctorate on oral premalignancy before being awarded an NIHR academic clinical lectureship for the completion of his academic clinical training. His clinical practice involves all aspects of head and neck and thyroid surgical oncology, while his academic interests include head and neck premalignancy, as well as translational research into circulating DNA and clinical trials into novel biomarkers in head and neck cancer.

Dr Nankivell has been awarded grant funding from Cancer Research UK and is currently co-chief investigator of an NIHR Programme Grant award to examine a new paradigm in cancer follow-up for patients with head and neck cancer. He is the early cancer theme lead for the Birmingham Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, and a member of the National Cancer Research Institute head and neck group and surgery and localised therapy subgroup. He is the translational study lead for the CRUK funded CompARE trial and an associate editor for Journal of Laryngology and Otology. Dr Nankivell is part of the team at the Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education and assists in the supervision of doctoral and academic surgical training. He remains committed to trainee-led research having previously chaired and been part of establishing INTEGRATE – the national ENT trainee research network and sits as the academic lead for the West Midlands otolaryngology training programme.