Co-creating, embedding and acting on research evidence to reduce health inequalities - major NIHR-funded collaboration
Funder: National Institute for Health and Care Research: Public Health Research £5m
Start Date: 1 October 2022
End Date: 30 September 2028
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Medway is funded by NIHR and hosted by Medway Council. NIHR HDRCs enable local councils to become more research-active, embedding a culture of evidence-based decision making.
NIHR HDRC Medway is a collaboration between Medway Council, the University of Kent and the people of Medway.
NIHR HDRC Medway is led by:
- Professor David Whiting (Director) and Acting Director of Public Health, Medway Council
- Lindsay Forbes (Academic Lead), Professor of Public Health, University of Kent
The aim of NIHR HDRC Medway is to build a collaborative research system led by Medway Council that provides strong leadership for research, builds research capacity, champions the value of research and embeds research as a routine function in local government to benefit local communities’ health and wellbeing. The HDRC involves council officers, elected councillors, academics and other partners working together to co-develop and co-deliver research that matters to Medway residents.
The vision is that Medway Council has a positive research culture. By this we mean it provides organisational support for building research evidence and using research evidence to inform policy on preventing and improving health and reducing health inequalities – for Medway Council and beyond. This positive health research culture will be embedded across the council. This is because that health is largely determined by the physical, economic and psychosocial environment and that these are not solely the remit of the public health department, but of all council departments.
More information:
Visit the Medway Council HDRC webpage
Developing a health and wellbeing research system in Kent & Medway (2021 report)
Who is involved
- Lindsay Forbes, Professor of Public Health, University of Kent, Academic Lead
- David Whiting, Medway Council, Director
- Sarah Hotham, CHSS, University of Kent, Co-Investigator
- Rick Pataky, Public Co-Investigator
- Logan Manikam, Medway Council , Co-Investigator
- Emma Hendricks, Medway Council, Co-Investigator
- Kate Day, CHSS, University of Kent, Research Assistant
- Sharon Manship, CHSS, University of Kent, Research Associate
- Amanda Bates, CHSS, University of Kent, Co-Investigator
- Maja Niksic, CHSS, University of Kent, Research Fellow
- Natalie Edelman, CHSS, University of Kent, Senior Research Fellow
- Natalie Byrne, CHSS, University of Kent, Research Coordinator