Funding boost for the National Centre for Population Health & Wellbeing Research

Bangor, Swansea and Cardiff Universities have recently won £2,249,927 funding from Health and Care Research Wales (formerly NISCHR) to lead the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research (NCPHWR), an all Wales Research Centre.

The aim of the NCPHWR is to make a significant impact upon the health and wellbeing of the population of Wales through applied research.

The centre is set to make Wales a world leader in population health science by generating an evidence base for public health policies, services and interventions and implementing findings on a scale that makes a population level impact.

NCPHWR will co-ordinate multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency health and social care research, collaboration with policy and practitioners, and public involvement across Wales. It will also expand links to leading international population health research groups.  

Led at Bangor University by Professor Jane Noyes from the School of Social Sciences in association with Professor Ronan Lyons and an executive team of scientists from the Universities of Swansea, Cardiff and Bangor, and Chief Executive of Children in Wales and Director of Research Public Health Wales, NCPHWR will coordinate population health research for the first time in Wales.

Building on existing areas of scientific excellence in Wales, NCPHWR’s core research themes will be:

• children and young people;
• the promotion and maintenance of health through an extended working life.

NCPHWR will contribute to Welsh policy goals of giving more children a healthy and safe start in life, reducing inequalities, and adding more years of high quality life. In adults it will focus on improving physical activity and wellbeing in the general population and supporting research into arthritis, asthma, cardiovascular disorders, infection and injuries.

Professor Jane Noyes said “Researchers in the School of Social Sciences at Bangor University will make an important contribution to the work of NCPHWR, which will provide a critical focus for population health research across the University and nationally.”

Professor Catherine Robinson, Head of School of Social Sciences, said: ‘I am delighted that the School of Social Sciences at Bangor University is contributing to this high profile project. Social science methods and perspectives will strengthen the collaboration in this new research centre to help to properly understand population health issues.”

Publication date: 27 May 2015