Title: NIHR HPRU Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: We will answer key questions that will help Public Health England (PHE) develop different ways to protect health. We will build on the successful partnership of our previous Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU). The new unit will have an expanded scope to use insights into health behaviour in the design, evaluation and implementation of public health interventions. Our different Work Themes (WT) span the whole process of research into interventions &ndash; from getting a better understanding of people s behaviour and the need to design a new intervention, to gathering evidence on what works and for which groups of the population, and looking at the best way of putting an intervention into practice. In WT1 called &ldquo;Intervention development: understanding risk and behaviour&rdquo; we will design new interventions, look at how interventions make a difference to people s behaviour, and ensure that we make use of all of the evidence we already have in doing this work (supported by WT2). In WT2 called &ldquo;Evidence synthesis&rdquo; we will review what we already know to make sure the evidence we develop is reliable. We will also develop methods that can use different kinds of often incomplete information to get reliable estimates of the size of a public health problem and look at how successful public health interventions are. In WT3 called &ldquo;Evaluation: clinical and economic evidence&rdquo; we will create new evidence to help with decision-making and guidance for PHE. This will include looking at different interventions and asking whether they are worthwhile for NHS or local government to put them into practice or design studies to collect new information where there is too much uncertainty to make a decision. In WT4 called &ldquo;Implementation&rdquo; we will use different approaches to look at the best ways of making public health interventions ready for implementation (&ldquo;optimisation&rdquo;) as well as evaluate whether new interventions have been implemented successfully across England. We will work with community groups to develop new ways of sharing our information. We will do this through talking to the public, networking, social media, the arts and educational events. We will measure how successful we are in our work in terms of new research funding in partnership with PHE, joint projects with other HPRUs, development of new research leaders, and looking for evidence that our work has made a difference.

Lay abstract: We will answer key questions that will help Public Health England (PHE) develop different ways to protect health. We will build on the successful partnership of our previous Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU). The new unit will have an expanded scope to use insights into health behaviour in the design, evaluation and implementation of public health interventions. Our different Work Themes (WT) span the whole process of research into interventions &ndash; from getting a better understanding of people s behaviour and the need to design a new intervention, to gathering evidence on what works and for which groups of the population, and looking at the best way of putting an intervention into practice. In WT1 called &ldquo;Intervention development: understanding risk and behaviour&rdquo; we will design new interventions, look at how interventions make a difference to people s behaviour, and ensure that we make use of all of the evidence we already have in doing this work (supported by WT2). In WT2 called &ldquo;Evidence synthesis&rdquo; we will review what we already know to make sure the evidence we develop is reliable. We will also develop methods that can use different kinds of often incomplete information to get reliable estimates of the size of a public health problem and look at how successful public health interventions are. In WT3 called &ldquo;Evaluation: clinical and economic evidence&rdquo; we will create new evidence to help with decision-making and guidance for PHE. This will include looking at different interventions and asking whether they are worthwhile for NHS or local government to put them into practice or design studies to collect new information where there is too much uncertainty to make a decision. In WT4 called &ldquo;Implementation&rdquo; we will use different approaches to look at the best ways of making public health interventions ready for implementation (&ldquo;optimisation&rdquo;) as well as evaluate whether new interventions have been implemented successfully across England. We will work with community groups to develop new ways of sharing our information. We will do this through talking to the public, networking, social media, the arts and educational events. We will measure how successful we are in our work in terms of new research funding in partnership with PHE, joint projects with other HPRUs, development of new research leaders, and looking for evidence that our work has made a difference.

Research activity codes: 2.6 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (AETIOLOGY);3.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (PREVENTION);4.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (DETECTION)
Health categories: INFECTION