Public Health @ Brunel

Public Health @ Brunel was officially launched on December 1, 2005, and is an exciting cross-university initiative employing multidisciplinary approaches in research and training to identify and address local, national and global Public Health challenges.

It locates Public Health within the Social Sciences, and the initiative brings together internationally recognised academics in Medical Anthropology, Biostatistics, Health Economics, Epidemiology, Environmental Sciences, Health Promotion, Health Services Research, Health and Social Policy, Psychology, Rehabilitation and Medical Sociology.

Public Health @ Brunel is a new, cross-university initiative employing multidisciplinary approaches in research and training to identify and address local, national and global Public Health challenges. Locating Public Health within the Social Sciences, the initiative brings together internationally recognized academics in Medical Anthropology, Biostatistics, Health Economics, Epidemiology, Environmental Sciences, Health Promotion, Health Services Research, Health and Social Policy, Psychology, Rehabilitation and Medical Sociology.

The Centre for Public Health Research establishes a critical mass of core expertise in Public Health at Brunel to approach dilemmas in contemporary population health from diverse disciplinary perspectives. It creates an exciting and dynamic intellectual forum for pushing the boundaries of current thinking about solutions to Public Health problems. This is essential for supporting collaborations between individuals across academic schools at Brunel University involved in what is, by definition, an interdisciplinary endeavour.

The overall goal of the initiative is to develop the evidence for the promotion of health and well-being in populations, which is informed by and integrates the disparate influences of society, culture and the environment.

The Centre’s objectives are:

· To provide a focus for Public Health research expertise across Schools, Institutes and disciplines within Brunel University.

· To provide a forum for interdisciplinary research and research capacity building in Public Health.

· To develop and promote multidisciplinary research approaches and explore innovative methods for investigating problems and evaluating solutions associated with the promotion of the health and well-being of populations.

· To disseminate the research findings of academics involved with the Centre and contribute to broader public discourse on issues affecting population health at the local, national and international levels.

· To provide mentoring and public health leadership training and research skills to junior academics interested in the area of public health.

· To create an externally visible profile for the Public Health research activities of Brunel University.

· To provide national and (ultimately) international leadership in the development of research in Public Health Social Sciences in areas that include:

o Social, psychosocial, behavioural and environmental determinants of health;
o Economic evaluation of health outcomes;
o Risk, conflict, security and health;
o Occupational health;
o Measurement of health status and well-being;
o HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases;
o Health, human rights and bioethics;
o Globalisation, migration and health;
o Global health and development;
o Environmental determinants of health; and
o Development of mixed and cross-disciplinary research methods for measuring health and well-being and evaluating interventions.