The Strategic Coordination of Health of the Public Research committee (SCHOPR)

The UK Strategic Coordination of Health of the Public Research (SCHOPR) is a sub board to the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR).

SCHOPR includes a broad range of research funders who work together to provide strategic direction, enhance coordination and identify priorities for improving the health of the public research. SCHOPR’s role is to develop and deliver a transdisciplinary strategy for UK health of the public research, including identifying priority areas of research and connecting research with public health practice.

SCHOPR was established in early 2018 in response to a 2016 report by the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS), “Improving the health of the public by 2040”. AMS highlighted that health of the public research needed an enhanced strategic co-ordination and delivery of funding to support the transdisciplinary research required to answer population level questions and protect and improve the public’s health.

In September 2018, the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) requested that SCHOPR produce a set of public health research principles and public health research goals. The overall purpose is to increase the impact of the UK’s offer on health of the public research, so we are better able to respond to the public health challenges we face, now and in the future. We need health of the public research to be more ambitious, draw on a wider range of disciplines and better connect with public health practice. The research goals and principles can be used by research funders to guide priorities.

To inform the research principles and goals, SCHOPR invited contributions from a wide range of stakeholders. This included government departments, local government, research councils, research charities, academics and organisations representing public health and related professionals. We asked for bold new research ideas, including the drivers of health, and how we could better support novel and transdisciplinary health of the public research. The paper setting out advice on public health research principles and goals was provided to UK Chief Medical Officers by the Strategic Coordination of the Health of the Public Research committee (SCHOPR) in July 2019 .

Since its inception, SCHOPR has established a programme of activities to achieve its objectives including:

• Advising the CMOs of the 4 UK nations on public health research principles and goals to increase the impact of the UK’s offer of the health of the public research.

• Initiating activities with local authorities and public health practitioners to encourage a research and evidence-based culture and increase the relevance of public health research to practice and policy.

• Professor Dame Anne Johnson – Independent Chair; Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Centre of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at University College London

• Professor Lucy Chappell – Chief Scientific Adviser, Department of Health and Social Care, England (DHSC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

• Professor Alison Park – Executive Chair, Economic and Social Research (ESRC) (Deputy, Joy Todd)

• Professor John Iredale – Executive Chair Medical Research Council (MRC) (Deputy, Joe McNamara)

• Sophie Hawkesworth – Senior Research Manager, Wellcome

• Dr Phillipa Hemmings – Head of Healthcare Technologies, Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)

• Mr Michael Bowdery – Health and Care Research Wales

• Dr Tom Barlow – Scottish Government

• Dr Janice Bailie – Northern Ireland Public Health Agency

For more information please contact Rachel Conner, DHSC Rachel.Conner@dhsc.gov.uk

The OSCHR Sub-Board on Health of the Public Research, aims to ensure a more strategic and co-ordinated approach to UK health of the public research.

To be successful, it will need to bring together the skills and expertise of a wide range of disciplines outside of the traditional sphere of biomedical and public and population health research: integrating aspects of natural, social and health sciences, alongside the arts and humanities, which directly or indirectly influence the health of the public. It must catalyse connections between researchers, research funders including UK Research and Innovation, policymakers and practitioners, and provide leadership to generate the necessary evidence to improve UK population health.

The proposed terms of reference are to:

1. Develop a transdisciplinary strategy for UK health of the public research.

2. Identify priority areas of research to meet the strategy.

3. Forge agreement between OSCHR Sub-Board on Health of the Public Research partners on the strategy and their integrated plan to deliver the strategy.

To support this, the OSCHR Sub-Board will undertake the following tasks:

1. Analyse existing investment, and the impact of previous investments, in research that can generate the evidence base to improve health of the public in order to:

• Identify gaps in funding.

• Consider the scale of investment required to meet the strategy and address priority areas identified.

• Determine how existing and future funding and infrastructure can be effectively coordinated.

2. Consider the best mechanisms to conduct and enhance capacity for research to improve health of the public, including how to bring together the wide range of skill sets, disciplines and sectors, encourage collaboration and minimise duplication.

3. Develop a strategy to help translate research into public health impact.

SCHOPR consulted with Government departments, devolved administrations, research councils, research charities and other interested groups to develop the research principles and research goals. SCHOPR requested suggestions based on the following:

1. Bold and ambitious research questions, including on the drivers of health, that we should be asking in the medium and longer term to help us address the big public health issues confronting us both today, and in the future, including any novel ways these could be addressed

2. How we can support, in addition to existing fields, novel, non-traditional and above all bold visions of what future transdisciplinary public health research can look like, taking into account the broad range of drivers of health.

The consultation has also been summarised.

News: Health of the public research given a boost as new coordinating body is launched

Blog: Chris Whitty- Introducing new public health research principles and goals to guide funding decisions