About the Public Health Research programme

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has set up the Public Health Research (PHR) programme following the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review in support of the national research and development strategy, Best Research for Best Health, and the 2006 Cooksey review recommending the need for more public health research. The programme's funding will rise to reach £10 million a year.

The scope of the NIHR Public Health Research programme is multi-disciplinary and broad. The main focus of the PHR programme's evaluation of public health interventions will be on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. However, broader impact, as well as acceptability to the target community and wider society, are also important to the impact and sustainability of public health programmes, and, where relevant, will also be investigated.

The Public Health Research programme will also complement the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme which has a growing portfolio evaluating NHS public health interventions.

NIHR Public Health Research Programme Implementation Plan
(National Institute for Health Research, 2009)

The process

The Public Health Research programme has two modes of operation. Most funding will be in response to applicants' proposals ('researcher-led'), but there will also be capacity to commission research into prioritised topics ("commissioned").
The Public Health Research programme will fund both primary research and evidence synthesis. The precise methods will need to be appropriate to the question being asked and the feasibility of the research.

Programme Director

The Programme Director of the Public Health Research programme is Professor Catherine Law of the UCL Institute of Child Health.

Professor Law has a wealth of experience in the field of public health. She has worked at the Medical Research Council Environmental Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton and with regional and national government. 

She is now Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at UCL Institute of Child Health, and also an honorary consultant (in public health medicine) in Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust, and Chair of the Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee at the National Institute for Health (NICE).