Gemma Gardner
Founder and Research Lead, AURIS Institute
Gemma Gardner leads the AURIS research programme on identity and occupational transition. Her work builds the evidence base behind the AURIS Identity System and the Identity System, drawing on interviews with service leavers, families and the organisations that support them.
Knowledge Hub writing
32 published pieces, about 59 minutes of reading in total.
Research
£300 Billion. And We Are Still Asking Some of the Wrong Questions.
Occupational identity, transition and the case for asking prevention questions earlier.
6 minute read · published 28 September 2026
Foundations
The AURIS Connection Hub
A verified, worldwide directory of support organisations, events and opportunities, built into the AURIS Identity System because the research kept showing the same problem: the right support usually exists, it is just hard to find.
4 minute read · published 9 September 2026
Research
State of the Evidence: What We Know, What We Don't, and Why This Research Is Needed
An audit of the AURIS Master Evidence Repository, conducted 30 August 2026, setting out plainly which evidence is solid, which is located but not yet fully verified, which has been downgraded, and which gaps remain open.
6 minute read · published 30 August 2026
Research
I didn't start researching identity. I started trying to help people.
A first person account of how a medical discharge in 2014, a self funded CIC in 2015 and a woodworking project in Liverpool in 2017 turned into the questions now being asked through Identity After the Uniform.
6 minute read · published 27 August 2026
Psychology
Service Provider Identity Adaptation
Service provider identity adaptation is the process of rebuilding a coherent sense of self after exit from, or change within, a trained role in a high-pressure service delivery occupation.
6 minute read · published 10 August 2026
Research
The Identity Gap in Service Leaver Support: Why It Matters
Practical resettlement support is comprehensive, yet our review of UK transition guidance found very little explicit discussion of identity as a psychological process. This article explains what we examined, what we found, and where identity adaptation fits alongside existing support.
4 minute read · published 10 February 2026
White Papers
White Paper 0, From Transition to Service Provider Identity Adaptation
A conceptual position paper reframing the Identity After the Uniform research programme: transition is the trigger, but the phenomenon under study is identity adaptation after a trained, high-pressure service role.
2 minute read
White Papers
Identity After the Uniform
Emerging findings from the first stage of the Identity After the Uniform research programme, a qualitative study of identity reconstruction after military service and other identity-defining roles.
1 minute read
Foundations
What is Identity?
Identity refers to the organised and evolving sense of who you are across time, roles and relationships. Identity-related processes are associated with how people interpret, decide, regulate and connect, but effects vary by context.
1 minute read
Foundations
What is Occupational Transition?
Occupational transition is the structured change of a person's primary role, leaving the military, the NHS, emergency services, elite sport or another high-identity occupation.
1 minute read
Foundations
What is Identity Performance Psychology?
Identity Performance Psychology (IPP) is AURIS's proposed applied field of inquiry examining how identity structure, disruption and adaptation interact with regulation, behaviour and sustainable functioning or performance. Its integrated AURIS framework is being tested; the component sciences are established, but the five-pillar sequence and its incremental effects are not yet validated.
1 minute read
Foundations
What is the AURIS Identity System?
AURIS is a five-pillar framework, Awareness, Understanding, Regulation, Identity, Stability, designed to support people through identity disruption and occupational transition.
1 minute read
Foundations
Why Identity Matters
Identity sits beneath wellbeing, performance, recovery and belonging. When we ignore it, support stalls. When we centre it, change becomes sustainable.
1 minute read
Research
Parliamentary Evidence Review
A consolidated evidence review on identity in occupational transition, prepared for UK policy audiences.
1 minute read
Research
Published Papers
AURIS supporting publications on sustainable change, Identity Performance Psychology and behavioural change through structured awareness.
1 minute read
Research
Identity After the Uniform
An applied research strand focused on what happens to identity when a uniformed career ends, across military, police, fire and ambulance services.
1 minute read
Research
Research Methods
How AURIS approaches research: mixed-methods, practitioner-informed, transparent about limits, and committed to open archiving.
1 minute read
Research
Pilot Programmes
AURIS pilot programmes test the framework in real-world settings with veterans, emergency-service personnel, NHS staff and partner organisations.
1 minute read
Psychology
Social Identity
Social identity is the part of the self that comes from belonging to groups, units, teams, services, professions, families.
1 minute read
Psychology
Role Exit
Role exit is the structured process of leaving a role that has shaped the self. It has predictable stages and predictable risks.
1 minute read
Psychology
Self-Concept
Self-concept is the organised set of beliefs you hold about yourself. It is updateable, and that is the work of transition.
1 minute read
Psychology
Behaviour Change
Identity can be one influence on sustained behaviour change. AURIS explores when aligning behaviour with self-concept may help change persist, alongside established behavioural and contextual mechanisms.
1 minute read
Psychology
Regulation
Regulation is the set of skills and habits that keep the nervous system, emotions and attention workable under pressure.
1 minute read
Psychology
Belonging
Belonging is a physiological resource. Without it, regulation and recovery are harder. With it, they become possible.
1 minute read
Psychology
Purpose
Purpose is the felt sense that what you do matters. It is rebuilt deliberately, not waited for.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
Military
Leaving military service is one of the most studied, and most under-supported, identity transitions in the UK.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
Emergency Services
Police, fire and ambulance personnel hold identities shaped by exposure, responsibility and trust. Transition out of these roles needs more than career advice.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
NHS
NHS staff hold deeply vocational identities. Transition, within roles, out of roles, or out of the service, is identity work, not only career work.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
Elite Sport
Retirement from elite sport is one of the sharpest identity transitions a person can face. The body changes, the calendar empties, and the audience moves on.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
Medical Discharge
Medical discharge is rarely chosen, often sudden, and almost always carries an identity shock alongside the medical one.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
Retirement
Retirement is an identity event before it is a financial one. Without identity work, the freedom can quickly become drift.
1 minute read
Occupational Transition
Military Families
Military families carry the identity work of service alongside the serving person. Their transitions deserve the same care.
1 minute read