Sadly, keynote speaker Prof. Sir Michael Marmot has had to withdrawn from this year’s event. However, we are delighted to announce that Prof. Nisreen Alwan MBE FFPH will replace Prof. Marmot. Prof. Alwan is well known for her impressive work inequalities, prevention, wellbeing in young families, Long COVID, and much besides.

Biography

Professor Nisreen Alwan is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Southampton and an Honorary Consultant in Public Health at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. She does research around how to prevent disease and optimise the wellbeing of young families leading to better long-term health and focusing on narrowing health inequalities. Prof Alwan has contributed to the public health response to the pandemic, particularly focusing on the recognition and the quantification of morbidity from COVID19, having initiated the call to Count ‘Long COVID’.

Prof. Alwan was awarded an MBE for services to Medicine and Public Health during the COVID19 pandemic in the Queen’s New Year Honours 2021. She was also named amongst other inspiring and influential women from around the world in the BBC 100 Women 2020 list. She is now doing research on Long Covid particularly focusing on inequalities in prevention,
recognition and care.

Prof. Alwan qualified in Medicine and obtained the membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP UK). She then pursued a career in Public Health Medicine via an MPH from the University of Nottingham and Specialist Training in the Yorkshire and Humber Region. She secured a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship based at the University of Leeds, obtaining an MSc in Statistical Epidemiology and a PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology. She is a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health (FFPH).

08:30 Registration opens

09:00 Welcome and housekeeping

09:10 Keynote address 1

09:40 Oral presentation session – Impact and implementation of public health science in policy and practice

10:50 Refreshments and comfort break

11:10 Keynote address 2

11:40 Oral presentation session – Creativity in public health science

12:50 Chaired poster session (NB: Overlaps with lunch to avoid long queues and encourage delegates to engage with posters)

13:30 Lunch

14:30 Keynote address 3

15:00 Refreshments and comfort break

15:20 Oral presentation session – New methodological approaches to public health science

16:30 Prizegiving

16:45 Closing remarks

17:00 End

We are happy to confirm the early career researcher event will be held in Cardiff’s Temple of Peace (King Edward VII Avenue, CF10 3AP).

A range of speakers will give interactive talks and hold short seminars on the theme of How to communicate research findings? Experts from the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre, The Lancet, and Public Health Wales will discuss and showcase ways to communicate your research findings beyond traditional academic domains and increase the impact of your work.

Please register for the conference, conference dinner, and ECR day here via EventsForce.

Thanks to our kind sponsors for supporting this event:

• Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre
• NIHR School of Public Health Research
• NIHR Research Support Service Specialist Centre for Public Health
• The Lancet

See below for provisional poster groupings. Theme names and groupings are subject to minor changes.

Registration for this year’s conference, early career researcher event, and pre-conference dinner is now – https://www.eventsforce.net/hg3/305/home

The main conference will take place from 09.00-17.00 on Friday 29th November at Sophia Gardens, following a pre-conference dinner at 19.00 on Thursday 28th November at The Botanist, Cardiff Central.

The venue for the early career researcher day is to be confirmed but the event will take place on Thursday 28th November from around 13.00-17.00. Full details will be added to the early career researcher event page as they become available.

The provisional ordering of oral presentations is in the tables below. Note that this is subject to change and a finalised timetable will be sent to presenters prior to the conference.

Session 1 – 9.40am

Session 2 – 11.40am

Session 3 – 3.20pm

Some notes on the progress of this year’s conference organisation:

• Final abstract decisions will be disseminated to authors on or before Sept 16th
• Registration will open early September.
• The pre-conference dinner will be held on Thursday 28th Nov. at The Botanist, Cardiff Central . Delegates will be able to register for the dinner during the main conference registration process. Limited places on first come, first served basis.

Key Info

Conference venue: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (Venue website | Google Maps pin)

Date: Thursday 28th and Friday 29th November 2024 – Note the main conference takes place on the Friday with the early career researcher event and conference dinner taking place on the Thursday afternoon and evening, respectively.

Registration: Available from September. Please join the mailing list to be informed when it is avaialble.

Abstract submission deadline: Monday 20th May 2024 – Detailed abstract guidance can be found here.

Call for abstracts: See The Lancet or this page on the current website.

Poster presentation and oral presentation guidelines to follow.

Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Friday November 29th 2024
Abstract submission deadline: Monday May 20th 2024

We are delighted to invite abstract submissions for UK Public Health Science: A National Conference Dedicated to New Research in UK Public Health that will be held in Cardiff on Friday November 29th, 2024. This annual conference showcases leading innovative public health research from across the UK and Ireland with accepted submissions published online by The Lancet. The conference will bring together researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and experts by experience to share and discuss contemporary issues, perspectives, and challenges in public health science and explore their impacts for practice, policy, health services, and research.

Abstracts are welcomed from people and groups working across all sectors and disciplines on topics related to any aspect of public health in the UK or Ireland. Relevant research is invited from the national health services, local authorities, charities and advocacy services, government bodies, universities, or other research bodies. This cross-sectoral approach makes for a fascinating and valuable event where participants can be inspired by novel world-class research.

Conference themes – Alongside the overall focus on public health science, this year’s conference will explore the connection between healthy neighbourhoods, the built environment, and public health from a multidisciplinary perspective. Cities have a central role in shaping population health. Understanding and optimising the built environment within urban settings is vital for cultivating health-promoting spaces. Submissions are invited* that address evidence-based interventions and policies relating to not only the physical aspects of neighbourhoods, but also to the quality of the air, reduction of noise pollution, and mitigation of other environmental stressors. By highlighting these issues, the conference seeks to stimulate discussions that can inform policies, interventions, and research initiatives dedicated to fostering healthier communities and mitigating the impact of environmental pollutants on population health. 

*Note: Abstracts on all aspects of public health are welcomed and do not have to address this theme. 

Conference structure – The conference will consist of oral paper presentations, chaired poster sessions, and keynote speeches. All abstracts will be considered for oral presentation. Abstracts can be submitted under any of the three core categories: creativity in public health science; new methodological approaches to public health science; or impact and implementation of public health science in policy and practice. Research described in the abstracts may have been undertaken anywhere in the world but must be relevant to public health science, practice, and policy in the UK or Ireland. We particularly encourage submissions that include experts by experience or early career researchers.

The conference will be preceded by an early career researcher event and networking conference dinner on Thursday November 28th, 2024. In line with our ongoing commitment to work towards delivering a net-zero conference, details of the conference carbon reduction plans and carbon offsetting will also be published on the conference website in due course.

Prizes – Prizes for best oral and best poster presentation will be awarded in two categories. The first category is for presentations by an early career researcher. These prizes will be generously provided and awarded by the NIHR School of Public Health Research. This category is open to pre-PhD researchers (eg, MSc student, foundation year trainee, research assistant, public health trainee, or academic clinical fellow), PhD students, postdoctoral trainees (eg, clinical lecturers, clinician scientist fellows, early career post-doctoral, or equivalent posts), and researchers from other pathways that self-identify as being early in their career. 

The second category of prizes recognises that experts with lived and living experience of public health issues have a crucial role in shaping and carrying out impactful research. Abstract submissions for this category are particularly encouraged from, or in collaboration with, experts by experience where the research shows meaningful involvement of people with lived experience. These prizes are kindly sponsored by University College London’s online Master of Public Health programme, which has lived experience involvement as one of its core underpinning values and cross-cutting themes.

Abstract instructions – All abstracts should be 300 words or fewer, written in English, and structured with the following sections: background (which should provide context and briefly outline the research aim); methods; findings; and interpretation. Submissions must not contain references, tables, or figures. Abstracts should include the following: a non-declaratory title that includes a study descriptor (eg, retrospective cohort study, randomised controlled trial, ethnographic study); names, titles, highest degrees, and affiliations of authors; postal and email address for the corresponding author and (if different) the presenting author; whether any of the authors are considered experts by experience; whether the presenting author is an early career researcher; any funding received (please also state if none); and a brief summary of each author’s contributions and competing interests (please also state if none). Abstracts should not have been published elsewhere and must include some results (results of ongoing analyses are acceptable). Reports of randomized controlled trials should follow the CONSORT extension for abstracts. Abstract guidelines are available on The Lancet’s website. Any abstracts that do not follow these formatting requirements will be rejected without peer review.

Abstracts need to be submitted through The Lancet’s online submission system and should be Microsoft Word documents. A covering letter should be included stating the submission is for the UK Public Health Science conference 2024. All submissions will undergo peer review. The deadline for abstract submission is Monday May 20th, 2024. The authors of successful submissions will be informed by Monday September 16th, 2024.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and seeing you all in Cardiff, The Lancet UK Public Health Science conference committee.