Newcastle University

Epidemiology and Public Health: Unit of Assessment 6

The majority of research in the Epidemiology and Public Health UoA is officially classified as internationally excellent or recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour, having most of its evidence assessed as being in the 3* and 2* categories for quality in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

Epidemiology and public health research at Newcastle University has developed significantly since 2001, in energetic pursuit of an international profile in focused areas of research.

At the last RAE we entered eight staff in epidemiology and public health. Five of these staff remain and are returned here, together with 14 new staff, including five ECRs. This expansion has been made possible through inward investment by the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS), creating nine new academic posts within UoA 6 since 2004. Accompanying this significant growth has been strategic restructuring and investment, culminating in the establishment of the Institute of Health & Society (IHS) in 2006.

IHS consolidates Newcastle’s internationally acknowledged strengths in the areas of public health and epidemiological research, as well as health services research and social sciences applied to health. IHS comprises 125 academic, research and support staff from the Faculties of Medical Sciences and Humanities and Social Sciences, making it one of the largest such groups in the UK. Of the 42 members of academic staff in IHS, 17 are returned to UoA 6, 20 to Health Services Research: UoA 7 and others to Business and Management Studies: UoA 36, Sociology: UoA 41 and Linguistics: UoA 58.

Since RAE 2001, epidemiology and public health research at Newcastle University has made major contributions of national and international importance. It has:

• helped to define the burden of disease and the contribution of non-communicable diseases in sub Saharan Africa;
• contributed to understanding the factors underlying trends in coronary heart disease mortality in the UK, USA and China;
• defined the relationship between exposure to pollution from open cast coal mining and children’s health;
• undertaken definitive work on paternal preconception radiation exposure and childhood cancers; and
• added to our understanding of the life course determinants of adult disease through ongoing study of the Newcastle 1947 birth cohort, the 1000 families study.

Key strategic appointments have developed areas of strength allowing the formation of four overlapping, multidisciplinary research groups:

• Chronic Disease and Life course Epidemiology (CDLE)
• Environmental Epidemiology (EE)
• Fetal, Perinatal and Childhood Epidemiology (FPCE)
• Public Health Interventions (PHI)

Since RAE 2001 epidemiology and public health research at Newcastle has published over 600 articles reporting original research of national and international importance and commanded research funding from research councils, government, international and AMRC sources, with a total spend in excess of £8.4m.

Significant contributions to national and international scientific communities have included: influential roles on committees informing policy and practice at national and international levels; editorial responsibilities; and invited presentations at major scientific meetings.

IHS prides itself on maintaining a highly supportive environment for capacity building and career development at all levels. In addition to internal investment in senior academic posts we have won career development awards at all levels, including two national career scientists in public health, one MRC post-doctoral fellowship and three NIHR post doctoral fellowships.

The north-east of England remains one of the most deprived and unhealthy populations in the UK and provides an important ‘population laboratory’ for our research. Our mission is to transform the health of patients and communities through world class health services and public health research and the application of social sciences to health. The formation of IHS brings together the key disciplines to achieve this vision. Our move to a £12m purpose built facility in 2009 will strengthen our ability to undertake research that will inform public health policy, nationally and internationally, in higher and lower income countries, on the major public health issues of our time.