Contact the Public Health Collaborating Unit

The Public Health Collaborating Unit (PHCU) is a joint academic research collaboration between Public Health Wales and Bangor University’s School of Health Sciences. Established in 2017, the PHCU provides a flexible and efficient resource for rapid research, evaluation and policy development support to Public Health Wales and the wider NHS.

The unique public health service and academic collaboration provided by the PHCU creates greater opportunities for developing knowledge, evaluating practice, informing policy and building public health capacity and collaborations within Wales and internationally. The PHCU develops work on novel public health issues and approaches through population surveys, systematic evidence reviews and intervention evaluations. The team have a broad public health research portfolio with specialist expertise in violence prevention and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), leading the Directorate’s international work in these areas and working in close collaboration with the ACE Hub and Wales Violence Prevention Unit. The team have strong connections with the World Health Organization in fields including violence prevention and social connection.

Our work

The PHCU undertakes and supports research across a broad range of public health issues. The team’s research skills include:

  • Survey design and implementation
  • Data analysis
  • Systematic literature review
  • Qualitative and mixed research methods
  • Evaluation
  • Academic and report writing
  • Grant writing

We collaborate with academic, NHS and other organisations across Wales, the UK and internationally to implement and support research and policy development. Recent work includes:

  • Undertaking a national population survey on adverse later life experiences and health in older people in Wales.
  • Conducting a systematic literature review on social determinants approaches to prevent violence against children.
  • Developing national and international reports on key public health issues, including adverse childhood experiences, violence against children, and loneliness and social isolation.
  • Supporting analysis of public health data from Public Health Wales’ Time to Talk Public Health survey
  • Supporting the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Comprehensive Immunization Special Program to understand and capture the wider social value of immunisation.
  • Working with police in Wales to explore public experiences of and attitudes towards Section 1 stop and search.

Publications

We publish our research in international and national reports and open access journal articles.

Contact the PHCU

If you would like to know more or speak to the team to see how they can help you, email: [email protected]