The funding is part of an £80 million investment from the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to Health Protection Research Units (HPRU).
A partnership between UK universities and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), HPRUs conduct studies into long-term public health threats such as antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and acute or emerging threats, such as pandemics, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents.
Bristol’s HPRU-EBS, led by Professor Matthew Hickman, and Professors Katy Turner and Charles Beck at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), will conduct research to help people and organisations improve their own and the public’s health through reducing infectious disease.
The multidisciplinary team, which includes researchers from Bristol, UWE Bristol, and the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge, provides expertise in behavioural science, qualitative methods, clinical trials, evidence synthesis, epidemiology, statistical, infectious disease and economic modelling.
Working across five work themes (Co-produce, Optimise, Vaccinate, Evaluate and Eliminate), the team will apply new and advanced research methods using a range of approaches such as promoting vaccinations, testing for infections, reviewing published research, evaluating existing actions and examining how they are put into practice.