Globalisation and global economic shifts, high levels of migration, demographic and environmental change, and convergence of key disease burdens between high- and lower-income countries mean that health problems increasingly need to be understood in global context and cannot effectively be tackled solely at local level or within the boundaries of single nation states.

Many key global challenges, such as urbanisation, climate change, antimicrobial resistance, environmental pollution and both over- and under-nutrition, have significant adverse health consequences. Similarly, many global public health problems, ranging from rising obesity to the emergence of new infectious disease threats, are rooted in socio-economic and ecological changes that cannot be contained effectively within national borders.

Traditional clinical specialities that address disease at the level of the individual patient are insufficient to deal with the social, economic, epidemiological, cultural and political determinants and consequences of these global health issues. Contributions from fields such as law and social policy can improve capacity to deliver research impact connecting more directly with global policy objectives, and cross-disciplinary working can produce innovative methodological approaches that generate novel insights into complex or intractable problems.

The Global Public Health research strand will seek to support the development of new research partnerships both across Departments and Faculties within the University of Bristol and with international partners, particularly those based in Low and Middle Income Countries; and will work on addressing the Sustainable Development Goals.