Professors Harry Rutter and Anna Gilmore lead this Beacon, which aims to create ground-breaking approaches to public health and sustainability for the challenges of the 21st Century.
Many preventable diseases are driven by the consumption of unhealthy commodities promoted by major corporations, with current attempts to address them having largely failed. This Beacon moves beyond these approaches with a shift in focus to action, working at all levels of the complex systems driving health and building on the global reputation of the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG).
This Beacon works across all three university research themes of Health and Wellbeing, Sustainability, and Digital, building on the strengths of existing work in these domains across the University and maximising the synergies that arise from the interdisciplinary work that will result.
The Beacon lead team have existing relationships with external partners such as Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Health Foundation, and policy impact is an essential component of its work.
The 21st Century Public Health Beacon is especially committed to engaging, supporting and developing early and mid-career researchers.
Research questions we will consider include:
- how do we achieve health-enhancing rather than health-harming policy?
- how do we tackle corporate power?
- how can we effectively internalise externalities?
- what national and global governance mechanisms are needed to drive positive change?
- how should science best be funded and structured to deliver an evidence base fit for purpose?
