New leaders, partnerships and themes: Director Graham Moore on DECIPHer’s exciting new phase
We recently celebrated 15 years since DECIPHer was established as one of six UKCRC funded centres of excellence for public health research. After 10 years, we transitioned to funding by Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales. In 2020, we then became a partnership between Cardiff University and Public Health Wales (PHW). We are now moving into our next phase, having secured sustainability funding from Health and Care Research Wales for 2025-30.
New Mission Statement:
‘DECIPHer brings together scientists, policy and practice stakeholders and the public to develop,
evaluate and implement interventions to improve population health and reduce inequalities.’
A new leadership team
We move into this next phase with a new leadership team. After more than 10 years at the helm, Prof Simon Murphy will be transitioning into a well-earned retirement. After eight years as Deputy Director, I will take over as Director. I am supported by an excellent team, many of whom joined the centre as early career researchers. This includes our new deputy Prof Rhiannon Evans, who like me, was a PhD student in DECIPHer’s earliest days, and Dr Honor Young and Dr Jemma Hawkins who also joined the centre in early career roles several years ago. We have benefited from the substantial career development opportunities offered within the centre and will continue to bring up the next generation of health improvement researchers after us. We welcome Prof James Lewis, a statistician and former research centre director, to our leadership team, and Dr Rachel Brown, a DECIPHer Research Fellow who will take over the leadership of our popular short course series. We continue to be supported by an excellent Professional Services team, led by Dr Sara Jones and Zoe MacDonald, who like me, have been in DECIPHer since Day One.
Continuing and new partnerships
We enter the next phase having maintained a range of partnerships from our earliest phases and built new partnerships from 2020-25. DECIPHer plays a major role in the NIHR Public Health Research evidence reviews team, led from Exeter University by DECIPHer alumnus Prof GJ Melendez-Torres, with Prof Rhiannon Evans as Deputy Director. Our NIHR Public Health Research funded Public Health Interventions Responsive Studies Team, PHIRST Insight, is led by University of Bristol DECIPHer co-investigators, with Dr Jemma Hawkins taking over from Prof Murphy’s lead role for the Cardiff University site. Within the ESRC funded Behavioural Research UK, we lead the Welsh arm, and co-lead the Health and Wellbeing Theme. This involves collaboration with colleagues from two of the UKCRC Centres of Excellence established alongside DECIPHer in 2009. We enter our next phase having continued to build the The School Health Research Network (SHRN), maintaining engagement with all secondary schools in Wales, and extending in the past five years to a growing number of primary schools. Dr Kelly Morgan and Dr Honor Young will lead SHRN as Prof Murphy departs.
We welcome two public members to the team, Praveena Pemmasani and Martin Rolph, supported by Dr Hayley Reed as academic lead for public involvement. We are also expanding our partnership with Public Health Wales, with Chris Emmerson and Ashley Gould joining our team from the Health Improvement Division and Behavioural Sciences Unit simultaneously. Dr Sara Long continues in a joint DECIPHer-PHW role, to build on this collaboration. Much of our research is cross-UK and international, including for example Dr Yulia Shenderovich’s work on parenting interventions in Eastern Europe. Our methodological work in particular has substantial international influence. However, these new and expanded collaborations will ensure our work maintains relevance to the public, policymakers and practitioners in Wales.
We continue to partner with the Health and Care Research Wales funded Centre for Trials Research, via Prof James White and Dr Jeremy Segrott. Members of our leadership team are also involved in two new investments funded by Health and Care Research Wales; the Swansea University led National Centre for Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Research, in which Prof Rhiannon Evans is involved, and the Wales Applied Virology Unit, whose team includes Dr Honor Young and Prof James White.
Our research themes and topics
From 2025, our research themes will be: 1) Improving Population Health; 2) Reducing Health Inequalities; 3) Methodological Innovation. We will continue to conduct research on the development, evaluation and implementation of interventions, primarily those outside of health care settings, bringing together scientists, policymakers and practitioners and the public to achieve this. Major topic areas of research strength within DECIPHer have included mental health, substance use and sexual health. These will continue, while maintaining the ability to evolve our focus as new issues relevant to the health of the public emerge.
Maintaining strength in research with children and young people, while extending beyond this
We have built substantial expertise in intervention research with children and young people over the past 15 years. Whilst this will continue, as our team has evolved, we have increasingly diversified our population focus. Our current portfolio entering our next phase includes studies focused on adults experiencing homelessness, and studies with people with dementia and their caregivers. Many of our largest current investments involve responsive models, applying our cutting-edge methodological expertise to almost any public health improvement issue and population. Hence, we will continue to do excellent work with young people, and to involve young people in the work that we do, expanding to work with publics beyond this. In reality, this diverse population focus is nothing new, and some of our most impactful early studies include a series of studies of the National Exercise Referral Scheme in Wales. Our Communications lead Clare Olson has updated our mission statement, branding and website to more clearly reflect the full range of DECIPHer’s research.
We look forward to the challenges, opportunities, continued and new collaborations that the next five years bring.