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Staff Profile

Kay Howes

Chief Operating Officer, NIHR Specialist Centre for Public Heath

Background

About the NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health

The NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health aims to support the generation of high-quality research evidence needed to inform decisions about which interventions have the greatest likelihood of improving population health and reducing health inequalities.

Established on 1 October 2023, the Centre's vision is to work nationally and with NIHR Research Support Service, NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations and all local government to support the development of a research culture and the infrastructure, capacity and capability to enable practitioners and researchers to carry out high quality public health research, outside the NHS, within local government, other organisations and the communities they serve.

To do this the centre provides:

  • Advice to researchers at all stages of their career on research design and funding applications for Public Health research.
  • Capacity within local government to embed research in every day practice
  • Support to local authorities to achieve consistency in research scrutiny and governance.
  • Training and development for public health researchers including access to online resources and signposting to training opportunities.
  • Research delivery support across England for public health research outside the NHS as part of a 2-year pilot, commenced in September 2025.


Role

Kay's role as Chief Operating Officer is to work with the Centre Director, Professor Ashley Adamson and Deputy Directors, Dr Sarah Sowden and Dr Louise Hayes to lead the establishment, strategic development and delivery of the Centre and ensure that its objectives and deliverables are are achieved. Kay also leads the Centre's core team based at Newcastle University.

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