Fuse gets five year funding

A virtual research centre, involving staff and students from Northumbria University, is set to expand its activities after successfully securing funding for a further five years.

Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, works to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation and aims to reduce inequalities by tackling major and emerging public health challenges. It will build on half a decade of success at bringing together and strengthening expertise from Northumbria, Durham, Newcastle, Teesside and Sunderland universities to conduct world-class research into public health issues like obesity, smoking, drinking and health inequalities.

The Centre will receive more than £4 million over the next five years as part of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration initiative that supports five Public Health Research Centres of Excellence. With this investment, Fuse will continue to deliver research and ‘translate’ research findings for the health sector as value-for-money policies and best practice. It will also continue to forge lasting partnerships with colleagues in the NHS, local government, voluntary and community sectors, and build capacity by developing postgraduate training and creating challenging new academic posts.

Prof Sue Carr, Associate Director for Fuse at Northumbria University said: “I am delighted that we have secured funding to continue to build on the excellent work we achieved in the field of translation research in public health over the past five years.

“The award of this funding affirms Fuse’s national reputation as a centre of research excellence and will allow us to continue the good work we have been doing in the North East.”

Prof Carr has led on a number of collaborative projects with a specific focus on new roles in public health and reaching the more disengaged populations in society. This work will continue and diversify to include emerging public health needs. Prof Mima Cattan will share the role of Associate Director and will have a specific focus on health ageing in which she has a strong reputation.

Fuse research aims to tackle the major health problems facing people today including obesity, heart disease and cancers, by addressing problems with diet, exercise, smoking and drinking. People face these problems throughout their lives and Fuse’s six new research themes reflect this by following key life stages, from early family life and teenage years, through to healthy ageing.

The Centre’s other research strands will study the complex changes currently taking place in the health system, aim to close the gap between those with the worst health and the rest of the population, and support Fuse’s core mission and aim to ‘translate’ research findings into practice, so that they can be adopted and improve people’s lives.

Fuse will also be launching a responsive research and evaluation service in June 2013 called ‘AskFuse.’ The service will respond to requests made by partners working in public health and will help to find solutions from research to address pressing local issues.