We are Public Health Wales (PHW) – the national public health organisation for Wales. Our purpose is ‘working together for a healthier Wales’. We help all people in Wales live longer, healthier lives.
We have a Long Term Strategy (2023-35) which sets out our vision for achieving a healthier future for people in Wales by 2035 through six strategic priorities.
Figure 1: PHW’ six priorities for population health in Wales.
Research and Development is a core remit of PHW, integrated into the statutory nature of business and functions. Our R&E Strategy sets out our commitment to applying a systematic approach to identifying R&E priorities for population health and working with a range of research partners and funders.
To help inform our actions in our six long-term priority areas, PHW relies on good evidence to ensure we are acting where we can make the greatest difference. PHW is part of a wider R&E ecosystem and we work with a wide range of researchers and collaborators across Wales, UK and internationally. We want to continue to strengthen and expand these relationships across an extensive research infrastructure with a focus on strengthening interdisciplinary research. We also want to work with funders to influence, support and strengthen the population health agenda for people in Wales.
The intended audience of this document include the:
✔ research community who are well placed to address gaps in our knowledge and understanding,
✔ wider public sector and the voluntary sector to work in common areas of interest,
✔ commercial sector and industry partners who may like to collaborate with us on aligned areas of interest,
✔ research funders who can invest in research which addresses gaps in evidence needed to inform action,
✔ people in Wales who are affected by and interested in what we do.
The Areas of R&E Interest have been developed and defined through engagement with:
The James Lind Alliance who undertook a prioritisation exercise with external stakeholders.
Long-term strategy leads, Heads of Service, PHW staff and the PHW Executive Team to identify key areas where there are research and evaluation and gaps.
Each PHW divisional R&E Lead through the R&E Strategy Oversight Group to further develop the priorities for their area
These prioritisation and engagement exercises have identified; what we are interested in learning more about and where there are gaps in knowledge. Some of the research questions we are interested in span multiple areas - in practice it is natural that elements of our work and interests cut across all six long-term priority areas.
To support partnerships and collaborations with the research community we have a number of research assets, programmes and strengths which are outlined in our R&E Strategy, as well as cross-cutting and enabling areas helping to deliver work within PHW. These include; behavioural science, international health and data and digital.
We continuingly invite the national and international research community to actively engage with us - to strengthen interdisciplinary research and align your research questions/programmes with the priority areas outlined in this document.