News

It has been an incredibly exciting 2 years since we launched the Specialist Centre for Public Health delivered by Newcastle University and Partners.

Our second birthday is a perfect opportunity to share our impact across our growing remit, along with a reminder that all of our work is underpinned by public and community partnerships and research inclusion. 

We are inviting research active professionals working in community care, public health, social care, care homes, or hospices to join the Research & Development Forum (RDF) Wider Care Settings (WCS) Group. Our aim is to embed research across all care sectors, not just within the NHS.

We are launching a two-year pilot programme, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, to strengthen research delivery support for public health research outside the NHS. 

This pilot addresses a gap in the current research landscape by supporting studies that fall outside the remit of the NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN). 

Are you in the early stages of planning public health research and thinking about how to engage and involve local people and communities? 

Book a slot at one of our informal monthly drop-ins with Tracey Johns, Public and Community Partnerships Research Adviser and a member of our Public and Community Partnerships Advisory Board. 

7 Public Health Engagement Leads (PHELs) met with SCPH Research Inclusion (RI) co-leads Kasia Kurowska and Lauren Hall. The session aimed to provide an overview of PCP and RI within the NIHR, public health, and local authority context. 

Over 140 delegates attended the second annual NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) annual event. The one-day event took place on Thursday 26 July in Leeds and was hosted by 4 Yorkshire and Humber based HDRCs; Bradford, Doncaster, North Yorkshire and Wakefield with support from SCPH.  

Thank you to everyone who took part, we're pleased to share the results and next steps. 

This exciting 1-year pilot will see Kasia Kurowska, PCP Manager, sharing responsibility for chairing the PCP Advisory Board with Samina Begum and Rosemary Nicholls. 

The Public Co-Chair role was co-created with our PCP Advisory Board to allow greater central involvement and power sharing with NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health public contributors. 

Local authorities told us that they wanted us to prioritise evaluation of public and community involvement. Find out about our activity in May to support developments for evaluating public and community involvement in public health research.  

On Wednesday 4 June, the LARP Network gathered in York for their second national in-person event.   

Stepping away from Microsoft Teams and engaging face-to-face allowed members to enjoy casual, spontaneous conversations, deep dive into discussions, and share meaningful moments.  

The aim of the day was to maximise connections, foster a sense of belonging and to ensure an approachable, stress-free environment - recognising that networking isn’t always easy.   

Meet Sophie Beckett, Public Health Research Officer from Birmingham Museums Trust. Sophie was awarded funding through our Public Health Grassroots Awards pilot earlier this year.   

Sophie is in the early stages of her research journey, and used her pilot funding to successfully complete a Masters of Public Health one-week intense module in Health System Policy, Planning, and Programming at University of Birmingham. This will support her to create a toolkit for museums on how to use Implementation Science in creative health activities. 

Dr Bronia Arnott, Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Methodologist from NIHR Research Support Service Hub delivered by Newcastle University and Partners, and Kasia Kurowska, Public and Community Partnerships Manager from the SCPH, led a Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) workshop earlier this month, with colleagues from NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRC) Blackpool and North Yorkshire.   

We are pleased to be sharing the consensus definition of research with you.

We would like to thank everyone who was involved in this project, from those who expressed an interest, to those who completed both rounds of surveys.

If you are working in, or with, a local authority on research we would like you to help us prioritise our research governance and ethics activity.  

Please complete our prioritisation survey to tell us which research governance and ethics projects we should concentrate on between now and September 2028.  

We launched our 3 explainer animations for local authorities in March and they’ve been viewed over 650 times! 

Catch up on our research training webinars for local authority colleagues

Whether you’re an experienced researcher, or are considering your first potential project, there’s something here for you. Over 250 people attended the first 4 webinars, and over 400 signed up for the remaining webinars!

We have created 3 explainer animations, that help explain research and the wider determinants of health in a way that we can all understand and relate to. 

We hope local authorities can use these with a range of audiences, including colleagues, their local communities, resident groups, elected members, and public partners. 

We have created 3 explainer animations, that help explain research and the wider determinants of health in a way that we can all understand and relate to. 

We hope local authorities can use these with a range of audiences, including colleagues, their local communities, resident groups, elected members, and public partners. 

Following a significant amount of scoping work, the following resources have been created, with guidance from the task and finish group.

We are delighted to confirm that we have offered funding for a further 19 Local Authority Research Practitioners (LARPs) across 21 local authorities, including 2 joint applications.

One of our key objectives is to provide resource for local authorities to identify opportunities for public health research and develop the ability to initiate research. 

Pete Latchford (left) is a public contributor with NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health (SCPH) delivered by Newcastle University and Partners and brings a wealth of lived experience as a service user and carer. Pete firmly believes that public contributors play a significant role in planning and developing research which will have a meaningful impact on public health.