UK: Universities in groundbreaking health collaboration

Britain's first Centre of Excellence for Public Health Research was launched at Queen's University Belfast last week with a focus on promoting healthier nutrition and lifestyles. The £5m centre is part of a £20 million (US$40 million) investment programme under the umbrella of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, a private-public research funding consortium. Its work aims to significantly improve the health of the British population.

The Queen's-based centre is the first of five in the UK to be launched. It will focus on an integrated approach to health and social services, and will research the economic, social and biological factors which cause chronic diseases as well as looking at the main causes of inequalities in health.

Professor Frank Kee, Director of the university's Centre of Excellence for Public Health, said a theme of partnership would underpin everything the centre would do.

"It will help Queen's and our partners to make a tangible difference to the wellbeing of the community," Kee said. "This will be central to our mission. It boosts our capacity to research the cause of health inequalities and increases our ability to ensure this research meets the needs of policy-makers, practitioners and the public we serve."

The four other centres to be launched will be dedicated to researching practical and innovative solutions to pressing health problems. They will be:
* A Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, led by Newcastle University in collaboration with Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside universities;
* A Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement, coordinated by Cardiff University in collaboration with Swansea and Bristol universities;
* A Diet and Physical Activity Public Health Research Centre in Cambridge, managed by the University of Cambridge in partnership with the University of East Anglia; and
* A UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, run by the University of Nottingham as a strategic partnership between seven leading tobacco control and policy research groups in the UK at Nottingham, Bath, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Stirling universities, and the University of London's Queen Mary College and University College London.
The funding consortium is led by the Economic and Social Research Council and its partners are the Health and Social Care Research and Development Office for Northern Ireland, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Wales Office of Research and Development - Welsh Assembly Government and the Wellcome Trust.

The initiative is part of a broad area of work to coordinate funding for health research by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. The UKCRC, established in 2004, is a partnership of organisations working together to establish Britain as a world leader in clinical research by harnessing the research potential of the National Health Service.

The partners include the key stakeholders that shape the health research environment, including research funders, the NHS, government, industry, academia, regulators, charities and patients.

diane.spencer@uw-news.com