Published on 09 April 2017
Our University is to benefit from a £20.5m collaboration set up to tackle the big public health challenges of the future.
Sunderland is part of Fuse (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health), a partnership of public health researchers across the five universities in the North East. The centre aims to reduce inequalities by tackling major and emerging public health challenges through world-class research.
Fuse has been successful in retaining its membership of the NIHR School for Public Health Research for the School’s second five-year term, which will bring significant research funding through to 2022. Fuse Director Professor Ashley Adamson has also been appointed lead of the School.
Fuse is led at Sunderland by Professor Jonathan Ling, who is Associate Director of the North East centre. Others involved at Sunderland include Dr Yitka Graham, John Mooney, and Roxanne Armstrong-Moore, who is a PhD student funded by the MRC as part of the Fuse collaboration.
Prof Ling said: “This is an exciting opportunity to continue to develop and strengthen public health research across the region and beyond.
“This funding emphasizes the importance of the public health research conducted by Fuse has had in terms of influencing the health of the public.”
The NIHR School for Public Health Research
Designed to build closer bonds between researchers and public health policy makers, the Government-backed School for Public Health Research involves eight member organisations.
First established in April 2012 to bring together leading academic centres in England demonstrating excellence in public health research, it aims to build the evidence base for effective public health practice.
This includes looking at what works practically to improve population health and reduce health inequalities and can be applied across the country to better meet the needs of policymakers, practitioners and the public.
The confirmed members of the School for Public Health Research are Fuse (the University of Sunderland, Durham University, Newcastle University, Northumbria University, and Teesside University), the University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, LiLaC (the University of Liverpool and University of Lancaster), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Sheffield, and University College London.