NIHR Central Public Health Interventions Responsive Studies Team (Central PHIRST)

The University of Hertfordshire is leading a consortium of four universities who form the NIHR PHR funded Central Public Health Interventions Studies Team. Our collaborators are the University of East Anglia, the University of Birmingham and Ulster University. PHIRSTs are a new initiative from the NIHR and their purpose is to co-produce responsive evaluation of public health interventions with and for local authorities and public health service providers and service users.

We are funded for three years in the first instance from 1st August 2020 to 31st July 2023.

Our first project involves evaluating the move to remote service delivery by Drug and Alcohol Services in Leeds during the covid-19 pandemic.

Our second project involves evaluating the move to remote delivery of the National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) in Wales.

Our third project involves evaluating five pilot projects looking to engage stakeholders in taking a Whole Systems Approach to diabetes prevention in the East of Scotland.

We will evaluate a further 3 public health interventions as part of our current funding.