£2.2M boost for health and wellbeing research in Wales
By News Wales, ,

Cardiff University, alongside partner universities Swansea and Bangor, has been awarded £2,249,927 to lead the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research (NCPHWR), an all-Wales Research Centre.

The funding from Health and Care Research Wales will support the centre’s aim to make a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of the population of Wales through applied research. This will be the first time that population health research has been coordinated in the country.

The research 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

The centre will build on existing areas of scientific excellence in Wales with core research themes centred on children and young people and the promotion and maintenance of health through an extended working life.

Professor Simon Murphy (pictured) from Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences will be leading the Public Health Improvement research programme within NCPHWR. He said: “This programme will build on the decade-long success of the Public Health Improvement Research Network and will also take forward the innovate School Health Research Network. Collaborative aspects of the programme will also see us working on a collaborative body of work with Cardiff University’s Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre and Institute of Primary Care and Public Health”

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.

Health and Care Research Wales (formerly the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research) is a national, multi-faceted, virtual organisation funded and overseen by the Welsh Government’s Division for Social Care and Health Research.