Frances’s research interests focus on HIV prevention and care as well as sexual and reproductive health research, much of which has influenced global and regional policy. Specifically she has conducted research to better understand the 'how to' of epidemic control. This has included research with key populations. Evaluation of prevention of mother to child transmission programmes, developing, implementing and evaluating strategies to support scale up of HIV self-testing (work which was later adapted to CV19 self-testing) as well as a series of projects with adolescents including adolescents living with HIV and adolescent girls and young women who sell sex. Between 2010 and 2020 Frances supported the re-establishment of mental health research in Zimbabwe through building collaborations and raising funding for mental health research capacity strengthening across East and Southern Africa. Her research has been supported by a range of funders research and programme funders. In addition, she mentors and supports a number of researchers including to obtain European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health and Care Research Trust, and Wellcome Trust fellowships.

Frances teaches on a number of master’s courses at LSTM and other UK and overseas universities. Between 2010 and 2020 she led or co-led a series of research capacity strengthening initiatives in Africa in partnership with University of Zimbabwe and other regional universities. These programmes, funded through Wellcome Trust African Institutes Initiative and DELTAS initiative as well as through National Institutes of Health/Fogarty funding provided support for over 60 PhD students and 6 post-doctoral fellowships across Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia, South Africa and Zambia. In addition, these grants supported 25 students to undertake MPhils in Public Mental Health at University of Cape Town.