Centre for Health Policy members are involved in a vast, continually evolving array of diverse research projects. The following provide a selection of current research projects. To find our more, or to identify individuals with specific expertise, please contact our CHP team.
Antimicrobial Resistance: Rendering the Invisible, Visible in Neonatal Wards in Tanzania (ARRIVe): This is a British Academy funded project, involving CHP member, Shona Hilton. Building on the earlier SNAP-AMR project, a £3.2 million MRC-funded initiative that influenced Tanzania's 2023-2028 National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, ARRIVe aims to create practical tools to combat neonatal and hospital-acquired infections, reducing infant mortality in Tanzania. It is a collaboration with researchers at the University of Glasgow and the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania.
Border Crossings: Charity and voluntarism in Britain's mixed economy of health care since 1948: This is a collaborative project currently being funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is a collaboration involving CHP member, Bernard Harris, Martin Gorsky (LSHTM), John Mohan (University of Birmingham) and CHP Associate Member, Ellen Stewart (University of Glasgow). The overall project explores the role played by charity in the development of the UK’s National Health Service (or Services) since 1948. CHP Members Rosemary Cresswell and Samantha Shave are working on this project with Bernard Harris, to investigate the evolution of policies towards the role of charity during this period.
Community Lived Experience Action Research (CLEAR) (2019-2024): This project build directly on CHP’s earlier collaborative participatory action research on the right to health. CLEAR was a collaboration between CHP, the ALLIANCE (Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland) and Public Health Scotland. CLEAR supported and promoted the use of peer research to influence change, bringing benefits to peer researchers, communities, and all relevant stakeholders with the aim of using peer research partnerships to positively influence human rights-based policy and practice. The outcomes of this work to date have included strongly established partnerships with a range of organisations in policy, practice and research; a cohort of skilled and experienced peer researchers; and a model for conducting a research project/inquiry with people with lived experience, and a model for connecting peer research to a human rights-based approach.
Enhancing Policy Modelling for Health: In April 2024, the Centre for Health Policy began collaborating on a new four-year programme of research working to enhance policy modelling for health. This programme of research is part of the multi-million UKRI Population Health Improvement UK investment and is led by Professor Petra Meier at the University of Glasgow. CHP members, Lisa Garnham and Kat Smith are collaborating with researchers at the University of Glasgow to identify criteria for assessing when a model is ‘good enough’ to be used to inform policy. CHP Associate Member, Prof Ellen Stewart, is also involved in this research, and is focusing on options for democratising policy modelling for health.
EQUALISE: A new ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity: November 2024 saw the launch of EQUALISE: a new ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity, with Strathclyde’s Centre for Health Policy leading on qualitative research and public engagement. EQUALISE is combining longitudinal data, qualitative insights and stakeholder perspectives to try to identify promising policies and interventions to reduce health inequalities across the UK. CHP Co-Director, Kat Smith, is leading Strathclyde’s contribution to this centre and CHP members, Katharine Timpson and Anna Gkiouleka, are both involved.
Gender and morbidity: Individual sickness trajectories of women and men in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century: This project, supported by the Swedish Research Council, is being jointly undertaken by CHP member, Bernard Harris, with Liselotte Eriksson and Lars-Fredrik Andersson (University of Umeå) and has received funding from the Wallenberg Foundation. It uses individual-level data from a Swedish sickness insurance society to examine the sickness experience of men and women in early-twentieth century Sweden. These records provide a unique insight into the incidence and duration of non-fatal illnesses and injuries among both men and women during a critical stage of the health transition.
Mobilising Scotland’s Assets in Equitable Ways for Epidemic Control (MOSEAC): In September 2024, the UKRI funded Mobilising Scotland’s Assets in equitable ways for Epidemic Control (MOSAEC) commenced, with CHP member, Gillian Macintyre, playing a key role in considering inequalities.
Participatory research on the right to health: In 2015, the University of Strathclyde Centre for Health Policy (CHP) conducted participatory action research on the right to health. This work was funded by NHS Health Scotland (now Public Health Scotland), supported by the Health and Social Care Action Group of Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights, and carried out in partnership with the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE), Glasgow Homelessness Network (GNH) and the Mental Health Foundation (MHF). In 2024/25, further work has included legal research to begin to explore the extent of alignment between public health-related legal duties and human rights duties linked to the right to health in view of the ongoing discussions about giving effect to economic, social and cultural rights in law in Scotland.
The Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC-Glasgow): This is a £5.2 million, six-year initiative, led by Glasgow City Council and funded by NIHR to 2029. CHP member, Shona Hilton, has a pivotal role in this collaboration, which is working to improve health outcomes for Glasgow's population by integrating research evidence into decision-making within the Council, with a focus on reducing health inequalities.
The Health-Justice Nexus in Scotland: In May 2024, CHP member, Kat Smith, began leading a new five-year programme of research to examine intersections between health and justice systems in Scotland. Funded via a CSO Applied Health Research Programme award, the programme is aiming to identify opportunities for improving health and justice outcomes in Scotland. CHP member, Ruth Friskney, is one of the researchers working on this programme. It is a collaboration with Strathclyde criminal justice colleagues, including Beth Weaver and PhD researchers, James Reilly and Emily Brenner, and with colleagues at the University of Glasgow, Edinburgh Napier University and the Scottish Community Development Centre. To find out more about this research programme, please visit the Health-Justice Nexus in Scotland.
The Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU): The Centre for Health Policy is collaborating with the Fraser of Allander Institute to run a new Health Foundation funded unit to tackle health inequalities in Scotland. SHERU is focusing on: Enhancing data and evidence about the social determinants of heath inequalities in Scotland; Scrutinising, analysing and commenting on policy responses to health inequalities in Scotland via key social determinants of health (e.g. policies to improve housing, employment, poverty and the economy); Engaging diverse stakeholders in ways that support dialogue across organisations working on health, employment, housing and economic policy; Strengthening the policy implementation of major strategies for improving housing and employability. Fiona McHardy and Kat Smith are the key CHP members involved in SHERU. You can find out more about the unit’s work, and access all their publications, here: Home - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit
THRIVING Food Futures: In February 2025, a new UKRI Hub launched, with the aim of identifying promising policy options for transitioning the UK’s food system to Net Zero in ways that also benefit population health. CHP members, Emma Hill and Kat Smith, are co-leading Strathclyde’s contribution to the hub, which is focusing on public engagement with the research. CHP members, Ally Brown and Isaac Tendler, are the Strathclyde Research Associates working on this Hub.
Water, sanitation and health in the first industrial society: Britain, 1780-1930: This ESRC-funded project is being jointly undertaken by CHP member, Bernard Harris, with Romola Davenport, Toke Aidt and Hannaliis Jaadla (University of Cambridge). It examines the role played by improvements in sanitation and water supplies on the decline of mortality in England, Scotland and Wales between 1780 and 1930 and will also seek to identify the implications of this historical study for present-day practice.