Research themes within the Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing (CPHWB)

We have a strong track record of methodological expertise in social science research applied to health and delivering research with impact on health, wellness and wellbeing in community populations. 

Global Public Health

Theme Lead: Dr Santosh Bhatta

The Global Public Health theme brings together innovative social science, health, and implementation research to address pressing population health challenges around the world. Current work includes research funded through the NIHR Global Health Research Programme in collaboration with the Nepal Injury Research Centre at Kathmandu Medical College, with projects exploring interdisciplinary approaches to road danger reduction and the cultural and sociological factors that influence injury risk and prevention in Nepal. The theme also includes research on migration and migrant integration, generating evidence that informs policy and supports progress toward global health equity.

Ageing Well

Theme Lead: Dr Emily Dodd

Ageing Well is a brand-new theme for the Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing at UWE Bristol. The vision for this theme is to carry out and support inclusive, interdisciplinary and world-leading public health research that promotes healthy ageing including dementia across the life course underpinned by a socioecological approach to health and wellbeing. Researchers in this theme work alongside local and national collaborators spanning the health and community sectors to coproduce research that has real-world impact to improve healthy living as we age. 

Healthy and Sustainable Places

Theme Lead: Dr Emma Bird

Our research explores how the design of places can shape everyday behaviours, reduce risks, and improve health and wellbeing for communities. This includes looking at strategies for safer streets, stronger community safety, and better integration of health into planning decisions, while also seeking to reduce environmental impacts and foster resilient and inclusive communities and improve population health and wellbeing.

Healthy Communities

Theme Lead: Dr Amy Beardmore

This theme is essentially about creating communities where people can thrive. It brings together community groups, organisations, and networks with public, private, and non-governmental partners to drive social action and meaningful change. Building healthy communities demands a multidisciplinary lens spanning diverse topics such as urban planning, healthy ageing, and digital inclusion, while applying robust methodologies and evaluation design to generate high-quality evidence. Central to this theme is a commitment to advancing health equity, ensuring that marginalised and minoritised populations are represented, included, and empowered in both research and practice.

Public Involvement and Co-production of Research

Theme Lead: Dr Jo White

Our work within this theme explores different approaches to and methodologies for public involvement and co-production, and what impact these can have. We have a particular focus on how the voice of those experiencing health inequalities can be meaningfully included in research prioritisation, design and implementation, and what power-sharing can mean in practice.

Public Health Economics and Evaluation

Theme Lead: Dr Hamed Zandian 

The Public Health Economics and Evaluation theme focuses on generating robust, policy-relevant economic evidence to inform decision-making across public health, prevention, and integrated care. The theme leads the Centre’s work on economic evaluation, return-on-investment modelling, realist economic evaluation, and capacity-building with local authorities and Integrated Care System partners, ensuring that our research translates into practical, scalable improvements in population health.