Mr Will Bolton

Mr Bolton is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Neurosurgery at the University of Leeds and Leeds Centre for Neurosciences, UK, where he combines neurosurgical training with an academic programme focused on restorative neurosurgery, neurotechnology, and surgical innovation. He is a neurosurgeon-scientist and translational to applied health researcher whose work centres on developing and evaluating technologies and interventions that improve recovery after brain and spinal cord injury, with a particular interest in modulating neuroplasticity in the acute perioperative period. His research spans neurotechnology, imaging, artificial intelligence, immersive and spatial computing, and novel approaches to the evaluation of complex surgical interventions.

He completed his PhD in Global Surgical Innovation and Technologies, where he investigated how frugal innovation methodologies can be used to develop and evaluate surgical technologies for low-resource settings. This work led to the IDEAL Global Framework and contributed to the establishment of IDEAL Global, an initiative of the IDEAL Collaboration that seeks to improve the safe, effective, and equitable development of surgical innovation in low-resource contexts. He continues to lead and support international research collaborations with a focus on surgical innovation, training, evaluation methodology, and global surgical health.