Research Support Service Specialist Centre for Public Health

We provide a ‘one-stop shop’ to support the creation of high-quality research evidence needed to inform policy and practice to improve public health and reduce health inequalities. 

By working with us, you will have access to: 

• Local Authority support and resources
• Pre award research design advice
• Training and development
• Governance and ethics

Current support available

Local Authority support and resources

We have a number of schemes to provide direct resources to local authorities to increase their research capacity and capability. 

Funding to support research capability: Direct resource will be provided to support research activity within Local Authorities. This will grow over the coming months and will comprise:

• Public Health Engagement Leads.

• Local Authority Research Practitioners (LARPs). We have funding for up to 120 part time posts over the next five years.

• “Grassroots awards” - we will launch our call for these short placements to allow public health practitioners to become part of an established research team. 

LARPs are dedicated to promoting the benefits of evidence-led decision making in Local Authorities. They facilitate and support the development of research governance systems and processes in their Local Authority.

A LARP will do different things depending on how much research activity is already taking place in their Local Authority. They may seek to build the infrastructure to increase the capacity for research or seek training for colleagues to develop their skills. They can promote or support research funding applications or connect colleagues across councils.

In February 2024, we held a closed call for those Local Authorities who had received funding from NIHR Clinical Research Networks (CRN), now Research Delivery Networks, for similar roles. We are delighted to have provided 10 Local Authorities with funding for a LARP.

Our first open call launched in May 2024, and we are currently reviewing applications.

Pre award research design advice

We offer support to anyone seeking advice related to carrying out public health research, in any setting, beyond the NHS. We want to help researchers to develop their ideas and apply for funding.

The pre award research design team has methodologists who specialise in mixed methods, health economics, qualitative methods, epidemiology, quasi-experimental design and involving the public in your research. They can provide guidance on appropriate research methods and study design, as well as help to identify funding opportunities.  The team can also provide bespoke support to those applying for fellowships, including applications to the NIHR’s Local Authority Academic Fellowships scheme. This support will be tailored to your needs but includes assistance with identifying appropriate supervisors and mentors, advice from current and previous recipients of these awards and peer review of your application prior to submission.  

Future development of this centre

This centre is developing additional support for public health research being conducted outside of the NHS. Future support will include: 

Training and development

 Another way in which the centre will be able to foster public health research is by providing access to appropriate training for people with different experience of conducting public health research in non-NHS settings. This will start with consultation and a needs assessment. We have recently appointed a Training Manager who will be joining us soon, if you have ideas on training that the Centre could provide, please contact using the details below.

Governance and ethics

The current systems which work well in the NHS do not fit with how research is conducted in other organisations like Local Authorities.

There is a lack of consistency in Local Authorities on what they define as research in the context of the wider determinants of health. The lack of a common definition is hindering activity to establish a robust and consistent research infrastructure, ethics and governance processes, and a research active culture. We will soon be undertaking a consensus project to agree a definition, or set of definitions, of research in a Local Authority setting.

The project will consist of a Delphi exercise, participants in Local Authorities will complete two rounds of online questionnaires where they will be asked to review, and provide their opinion on, potential research definitions.

We will be advertising the project during July and August 2024 with the intention of launching the questionnaire rounds in September and November 2024. A final research definition workshop will be held in late January 2025 with outputs from the project expected shortly afterwards.

Over the coming months, the centre will also work with users across local government to develop guidance and templates to support ethical approval and governance for research in non-NHS settings and scope out whether a registry is needed of ongoing and completed research in this area. 

Get in touch 

Join our mailing list to hear about news, events, and future funding calls.

To contact the Newcastle team directly, email nihr.rss.publichealth@newcastle.ac.uk

The Specialist Centre for Public Health delivered by the University of Southampton and Partners is a collaboration between fifteen units making up a team of highly experienced methodologists, researchers and public health practitioners. They are skilled research advisers, providing support in many different methodological areas and contexts for public health research.

Additionally, access is available to other public health researchers and practitioners with national and international track records through partner institutions and networks, to support the development and delivery of high quality public health research.

A full range of support for the development of public health research funding applications is available, from advice on very early research ideas to research design, advice on setting up studies, community partnership and involvement, and collaboration opportunities.

See a list of partners on the RSS Hub delivered by the University of Southampton and Partners page.

Support available

Support is delivered in various ways, including:

• One-to-one advice
• Discussion of research ideas, applications and study set-up with our multidisciplinary methodology panels and public health research experts
• Pre-submission application review
• Mock interviews
• Opportunities to meet with partner clinical trials units and other researchers from the network for potential collaboration (for projects), or supervision/mentorship (for fellowships) 
• Events focused on public health research application development

The team bring expertise in the following core methodological areas: 

• Quantitative and qualitative study design and analysis, including clinical trials, epidemiology, medical statistics, mixed methods, co-design, health economics, health psychology
• Patient, public, service user and community involvement and engagement
• Research design to maximise Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

A broad range of support is available for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) from a dedicated PPIE team. This includes:

• Advice on funders' requirements relating to PPIE
• Support identifying and approaching PPIE contributors
• Support and advice on undertaking community involvement and working with underserved communities
• Support undertaking novel approaches to PPIE or community engagement
• Facilitating PPIE sessions and collating feedback
• Reviewing PPIE sections of research applications
• Support and advice on addressing challenges relating to EDI and diversity within PPIE
• Support and advice on innovative PPIE approaches
• Advice on costing PPIE activities into grant applications
• Providing Public Involvement Funds to support the payment of pre-grant PPIE activities

Other support includes:

• Advice on research contracts, governance, ethics, data management and public health research delivery in non-NHS settings
• Advice in finding funding sources
• Refining research questions, aims and objectives
• Planning projects, teams and budgets
• Impact planning
• Writing techniques/pitching an application

In addition to the national support offer above, for those interested in public health research within Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight (BOBHI), this centre can also offer: 

• Bespoke training, events and support to increase capability in public health research
• Specialist support to facilitate meaningful involvement and collaboration with local populations, particularly within underserved communities
• A public health research ethics committee
• Support for the delivery of funded public health research
• Partnership with local authorities to understand and respond to public health research needs and aspirations and increase public health research capacity.
• Community research partnerships (including third sector) and network development

Research strengths and areas of interest

In addition to the expertise available in the linked hub, this team brings expertise in the following areas:

• Economic/social return on investment
• Governance and ethics
• Health and social inequalities research
• Implementation science
• Public health intelligence
• Public policy
• Real-world and realist evaluation
• Systems research

The team have particular expertise in the following areas:

• Methods
• Asset mapping with communities
• Community participatory research methods
• Community research networks
• Geospatial data analysis
• Intervention co-design
• Lifecourse epidemiology
• Peer researchers, youth peer researchers
• Public health research involving industry partners
• Science communication / engagement 
• Use of public health models and frameworks for intervention design
• Trials/other studies conducted outside the NHS
•  Subject areas
• Agency and well-being in young people
• Food poverty
• Intersectionality
• Health and the criminal justice system
• Nutrition across the life course
• Maternal and child health
• Prevention of long term conditions
• Research with, and for, marginalised groups including people experiencing homelessness, and people who inject drugs
• Violence prevention

For enquiries please contact nihr-rss-publichealth@soton.ac.uk

To request advice and information from the RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health, please fill out this online contact form.