The Centre for Public Health (CPH) has four aligned research groups: Epidemiology and Public Health; Cancer Epidemiology; Nutrition and Public Health; and Health Services and Global Health. CPH has a track record of international excellence, demonstrable in all four of the research groupings and which is evidenced by the quality of our academic outputs and our staff’s membership of prestigious funding and policy setting bodies. In research terms, the groups have porous boundaries which underpin substantial collaboration across the Centre as a whole, with obvious bridging themes of Data Science and Complexity Science; our staff are also encouraged to collaborate with the other research and education centres in the School and with researchers from other Schools within and outwith the Faculty.

Epidemiology and Public Health Group

The Epidemiology and Public Health Group focuses on both observational epidemiology and intervention studies and natural experiments, with a broad range of international and multidisciplinary collaborations using major infrastructure funding from ESRC, MRC, EU, and NIHR. This work harnesses individual perspectives across the life course population-based data, and systems thinking approaches in discovery science and novel intervention development and their application to clinical, public health practice and climate change. We help understand how both genes and environments (including social norms networks, physical/natural environments, and policies) shape risk in individuals and populations. Notable programmes include a focus on methodological approaches, healthy ageing, prevention, early detection, and improved diagnosis of common and rare diseases.

Cancer Epidemiology Research Group

The Cancer Epidemiology Research Group conducts research into trends, prevention, early detection and prognosis of cancer both nationally and globally. Notable programmes include molecular epidemiology research on pre-cancerous conditions, gastrointestinal cancer progression and precision medicine, and internationally renowned expertise in pharmaco-epidemiology. Our research group is supported by substantial CRUK and UKRI funding, in addition to crucial core investment from the Public Health Agency in the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR).

Nutrition and Public Health Group

The Nutrition and Public Health Group conducts inter-disciplinary research to understand how nutrition can be optimised to promote health and prevent disease. This work spans the life-course and a number of different settings, with notable programmes of work in schools, before, during and after pregnancy and in older people. It includes a focus on biomarkers of a healthy diet, optimising diets for nutrition and sustainability, and behaviour change. This is achieved through the use of a wide range of research methodologies and is supported by funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, NIHR, EU and NIH.

Health Services Research Group

The Health Services and Global Health Research Group focuses on improving health services and care for people with chronic conditions, and on Global Health. The group has several key interdisciplinary programmes which focus on the global challenges of addressing health and psychosocial care for chronic conditions and ageing populations: (i) Ophthalmology and eye health care research; (ii) Oral health care research; (iii) Methodology research; and (iv) Health economics and policy. A developing strand that criss-crosses these main programmes revolves around the health care improvement agenda and implementation science.

Future Plans

Future plans for CPH will build on the belief that the School needs to continue to foster interdisciplinary collaboration for better research translation and impact and include continued investment in early career