Impact report

Foreword

It has been an incredibly exciting two 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. 

I would like to thank all of the local authorities, Health Determinants Research Collaborations, public health academics and public and community contributors, and everyone reading this report, for working with us to shape, support, and further develop public health research outside the NHS. Thank you also to our knowledgeable and supportive Advisory Board, who continue to push us to strive for better.

None of the work you will read about in this report would have been possible without our dedicated team, including our three satellites in the Midlands, the South East and Yorkshire and Humber, who all work with such enthusiasm to drive forward our shared vision. 

Thank you all, I hope you enjoy reading and that you can all feel collectively proud of this impact report. 

Professor Ashley Adamson

Director

Our second year...

Local authority support and resources

We have awarded funding for: 

• 2 public and community partnership funding award pilots investing £20K for local authorities to explore ways of involving diverse people and communities in public health research 

• 76 Local Authority Research Practitioner (LARP) awards across 82 local authorities totalling over £4.6M investment

• 14 Public Health Engagement Lead (PHEL) awards totalling over £200K investment 

• 22 Grassroots awards (including 3 pilots) with an investment of £110K into individual research careers 

Our satellites

We launched 2 satellites in the Midlands and the South West, and continued to build on the success of our first satellite in Yorkshire and Humber.

Training and development 

Working in collaboration with local authorities, HDRCs and LARPs we have: 

• created 3 explainer animations

• published a glossary of research terms

• reviewed and shared over 100 training resources 

• delivered 10 training webinars to over 850 delegates 

Research governance and ethics 

Completed projects and resources: 

• produced 4 research governance and ethics explainer documents 

• definition of local authority research project and accompanying decision tool

• local authority research governance and ethics scoping exercise 

• local authority research governance and ethics prioritisation survey 

Engagement

2050 followers on LinkedIn 

• 3189 reactions

• 108 comments 

• 146 reposts 

1226 newsletter subscribers 

• 6 newsletters issued

• 49% open rate

• 23% click rate 

Public and community partnerships

18 of our public contributors have reviewed 28 plain English summaries and 5 applications, and sat on 13 mock interview panels. 

Research design advice 

Our 19 methodologists across England have supported 315 research projects and answered 103 research design enquiries. They have also delivered workshops and webinars for local authorities. 

Local authority support and resources

Local Authority Research Practitioners (LARPs)

Over the last 12 months, our LARP Network has continued to grow. We have awarded funding for a further 42 LARPs, across 48 local authorities. Together, the LARPs have: 

• Begun to meet regionally to catch up, share best practice and learning 

• Launched 5 interest groups preventing overlap of activity by coming together to discuss topics including 'developing training', 'creating a research strategy' and 'establishing research champions' 

• Had the opportunity to meet fortnightly for drop-in sessions to connect, share ideas and ask for support from one another 

• Attended 7 show and tell sessions, offering LARPs the opportunity to hear from public health experts or share their own best practice on their research journey or area of expertise 

• Launched the LARP Network in London in November at a national event attended by 12 LARPs and 16 LARP colleagues 

• Met for the summer network event in June, attended by 31 LARPs, 6 PHELs, and 8 LARP colleagues 

Public Health Grassroots Awards

We awarded our first 3 pilots in January:

• Pilot 1 – A colleague from London Borough of Hackney Council spent 3 months supporting an NIHR programme of research led by University College London​

• Pilot 2 – Sophie Beckett from Birmingham Museums Trust (part of Birmingham City Council's Public Health Team) at the early stages of her research journey, completed a Master of Public Health module and research training

• Pilot 3 – A voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) colleague from Nuvo Wellbeing, completed an academic placement to assist the analysis of quantitative data, and public involvement training

We held our first open funding call in April and made 19 awards:

• 9 to local authorities

• 10 to VCSE organisations

Public Health Engagement Leads 

Our PHELs have had an incredibly busy year, in the last 12 months they have: 

• Attended regional events and promoted our offers including funding calls and webinars

• Worked with our LARPs and attended their regional catch ups

• Sedina Lewis from London Borough of Havering recorded a video for our Advisory Board meeting sharing her progress and hopes for her PHEL role

• Advised on the design of our public and community partnerships funding award

• Applied and been successful for the NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme

• Attended a public and community partnerships and research inclusion session to share learning and areas for development

• Promoted and supported local authorities to apply for Public Health Grassroots Awards funding and sat on the funding panel

• Kate Warren from City of Wolverhampton Council hosted our recent research governance showcase webinar

• Janet Ige from Slough Borough Council line manages one of our LARPs as part of her role

• Promoted and supported local authorities to apply for our LARP funding and sat on funding panels

Research governance and ethics

We have had over 70 conversations with 61 local authorities and stakeholders about research governance and ethics:

• discussed current research governance and ethics processes, future plans, challenges and gaps 

• relevant documentation and resources were shared

The exercise led to a list of potential projects and a projects prioritisation exercise with local authorities.

In May, we asked local authority colleagues to help us prioritise which projects we should focus on to support local authority research governance and ethics. We received 84 responses.

Priority areas identified were: 

• research language and landscape

• areas of research interest and collaborations

• using, managing, and sharing data for research

• costings, finance and publication/dissemination of research 

We are taking projects in these areas forward. 

Based on feedback from conversations with local authority colleagues, we developed 4 resources to support understanding of research governance and ethics:

• about research governance explainer

• about research ethics explainer 

• about research integrity explainer

• about research sponsorship explainer 

These have been viewed over 650 times.

Definition of local authority research

Local authority research supports decision making about practice, policies and interventions at a local, regional or national level

and/or

It helps us understand how people are impacted by the context in which they live, work and go about their daily lives.

Research uses structured, organised and reproducible methods to:

• produce new information or knowledge, which may include testing an idea, theory or new intervention

and/or

• provide a new interpretation of existing information. This may include routinely collected data being used for a new purpose, as well a publicly available data.

This year we worked with local authorities to agree a consensus definition of research. We invited 60 panellists from local authorities, who represent a range of job roles, directorates and geographical areas, to participate.

For the first part of the project, we asked participants to assess 24 initial definitions. In the second part of the project, we asked participants to assess refined definitions.

We have produced guidance and a decision tool to support the use of the definition.

Thank you to the panellists, project Steering Committee and everyone who has supported this important work.

Research design advice

It’s been a busy year for our methodologists across England, together they have: 

Supported 315 research projects for funding calls including:

• Predoctoral fellowships

• Doctoral fellowships

• NIHR Three Schools Prevention Programme

• The impact of local climate change adaption on health and health inequalities

• Veterans’ health

• Greenspace and natural environments

• Commercial practices and gambling

• Modelling the effects of public policy on e-cigarette use

• Men’s mental health

• Continuing areas of research interest

Delivered 8 webinars as part of our training webinar series.

Supported 103 research design enquiries from:

• 25 local authorities 

• 7 community organisations

• 59 academic institutions 

• 12 other organisations

Worked closely with our public contributors, who have supported: 

• 13 mock interview panels

• 28 Plain English summary reviews

• 7 public involvement and engagement resource reviews 

• 3 public and community partnership drop-ins 

Research delivery pilot

We are delighted to announce the launch of a 2-year research delivery pilot programme, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, to strengthen research delivery support for public health research outside the NHS.

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

The pilot will:

• understand the needs of researchers working in non-NHS public health settings

• co-design a new delivery support service with researchers and stakeholders

• expand pre award support, including study placement and feasibility

• test post award delivery support, helping researchers to implement their studies

This work will be a close collaboration across NIHR infrastructure, particularly with the RDN. Together, the aim is to create a joined-up research support offer spanning both NHS and non-NHS public health settings.

By September 2027, the research delivery pilot will give recommendations on how a future service could be structured, scaled, and hosted.

If you’d like to find out more about this work, please get in touch with us: nihr.rss.publichealth@newcastle.ac.uk. 

Training and development

Explainer animations

In March, we launched 3 explainer animations for local authorities. Collectively, they’ve been viewed over 1700 times.

The animations help explain research and the wider determinants of health in a way that we can all understand and relate to.

Thank you to the training and development task and finish group who worked with us to produce them, which includes membership from Health Determinants Research Collaborations, local authorities, SCPH colleagues and public and community contributors.

Research training webinar series

Whether you’re an experienced researcher, or considering your first potential project, there was something for everyone in our training webinar series.

Since we launched the series in March, over 850 people attended 10 webinars. They have been viewed over 1400 times on YouTube.

Glossary

We launched a glossary of research terms developed in conjunction with HDRC Medway public contributors. The glossary has been viewed over 200 times. 

Database of resources

We have reviewed and shared over 100 bespoke and already-available guidance and training resources.

Public and community partnerships

Establishing our Advisory Board - Our public and community partnerships (PCP) Advisory Board was established in November, it is the main way we involve lived experience and public and community voices in our work. The Advisory Board includes public contributors from across all 9 English regions. Thank you to our public contributors for your enthusiastic involvement.

We are over halfway through a 1-year pilot in which public contributors co-chair the PCP Advisory Board. The role was co-created to allow greater central involvement and power sharing.

Public contributor involvement in LARP funding call - Pete Latchford was the first of our public contributors to be part of a LARP funding panel in January. “My inclusion in the funding panel helps normalise the involvement of public contributors. Some of the panel also commented how good it was to have a public perspective included.”

Commitment to PCP training and development - A co-creation group of local authority colleagues and public contributors helped shape our PCP training and development offer. Working together we hosted successful PCP training webinars on demystifying PCP, evaluating PCP and ethical practice in involvement in March, May and September.

This impact report was produced by the NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health delivered by Newcastle University and Partners. 

Data cut 18 September 2024 to 17 September 2025.