Centre for Public Health
The Centre for Public Health conducts research into the health of the population with the aim of promoting and protecting health and well-being, preventing ill-health and reducing health inequities.
Our work covers a range of policy topics including obesity, physical activity, nutrition, sexual health, mental health and well-being, tobacco, alcohol and drugs misuse.
The Centre is home to over 60 members of staff and undertakes world leading public health research. The Centre provides both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and offers supervision and specialist training in public health and works closely with colleagues in public health policy and practice at local, regional and national level.
The Centre for Public Health works in collaboration with a number of funded public health research programmes:
- NIHR School for Public Health ResearchA partnership between nine leading academic centres with excellence in applied public health research in England. Professor Rona Campbell is the Deputy Director & Academic Career Development Lead and the Lead for Bristol.
- NIHR Three SchoolsA unique collaboration between the Schools for Public Health Research (SPHR), Primary Care Research (SPCR), and Social Care Research (SSCR). The Schools are currently delivering three collaborative programmes of work on prevention, mental health research and dementia research.
- NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Team (PHIRST Insight)PHIRST Insight is one of six academic teams who are working with local authorities to co-produce robust research on the public health impacts of initiatives and evaluate work that is already happening in local government across the UK. PHIRST Insight builds on the highly productive 10-year collaboration between Cardiff and Bristol Universities as the UKCRC funded DECIPHer Centre (Development and Evaluation of Complex Intervention for Public Health Improvement). Professor Rona Campbell is Director, Professor Russ Jago is the Lead for Bristol, and Professor Simon Murphy is the Lead for Cardiff.
- NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) WestThe National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West) replaces NIHR CLAHRC West. ARC West is hosted by University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UH Bristol). It brings together universities, local authorities, NHS trusts, clinical commissioning groups, voluntary sector and community organisations in the West of England, alongside patients and members of the public, to focus on improving health and care for local people. Professor John MacLeod is the NIHR ARC West Director. Professor Russ Jago is the Co-lead for the Public Health and Prevention theme, and Professor Frank de Vocht is the Co-lead for the Applied Data Science team.
- NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation (HPRU)A partnership between the University of Bristol and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge, and the University of the West of England. Professor Matthew Hickman is the co-director of the Bristol HPRU alongside Professor Isabel Oliver, Interim Chief Scientific Officer, UKHSA and Dr Richard Amlôt, Head of Behavioural Science, Emergency Response Department, UKHSA.
See more about the work we do on our research pages.