Please note that the ECR event is now fully booked so please only attend if you have a booked place
Location: Temple of Peace, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AP.
Date and time: Thursday 28th November 2024, 1.20-5pm.
Theme: How to communicate research findings?
1.20pm – Registration & coffee
1.45pm – Welcome & housekeeping
2pm – “The road to 20mph in Wales” – Dr Sarah J Jones, Public Health Wales
2.30pm – “Ensuring research evidence is understood and used by policy and clinical decision-makers: sharing our learning and top tips” – Dr Alison Cooper & Dr Micaela Gal, Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre, Cardiff University
3pm – Comfort break & networking
3.30pm – “Social media for public health” – Leah Morantz, Chart.PR MCIPR, Public Health Wales
4pm – “Communicating research through podcasts” – Dr Gavin Cleaver, The Lancet
4.30pm – Closing remarks & networking
Speaker bios can be found below.
The ECR event will finish at 5pm. After that, feel free to join us for a short walk to Longa Restaurant (11 Park Place, CF10 3FH) for coffee/drinks (at own expense), as well as further networking ahead of the conference dinner that evening.
Speaker biographies
Dr Sarah J Jones
The road to 20mph in Wales
Sarah is a consultant in Environmental Public Health at Public Health Wales and has a particular interest in how transport affects our health. Beginning with a PhD studying child pedestrian injuries and deprivation, and moving to thinking about the inter-relationships between road safety, air pollution and physical activity / obesity, led Sarah to study the evidence for 20mph as a public health intervention and to start to estimate the potential health benefits. Sarah also continues to be involved in advocating for the introduction of Graduated Driver Licensing.
Dr Alison Cooper
Ensuring research evidence is understood and used by policy and clinical decision-makers: sharing our learning and top tips
Dr Alison Cooper is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University. She is one of the Associate Directors of the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre (previously Wales Covid Evidence Centre) where she leads the Science-Policy-Practice-Interface work programme. In this role she works with policy, clinical and social care decision-makers to develop a work programme that addresses the most important policy and practice needs,and is most likely to achieve change.
Alison has an interest in women’s health, health services research and patient safety. Her PhD explored opportunities to improve patient safety when GPs work in or alongside emergency departments, as part of a NIHR multicentre realist evaluation. She is also a salaried GP in Rumney Primary Care Centre, Cardiff.
Dr Micaela Gal
Ensuring research evidence is understood and used by policy and clinical decision-makers: sharing our learning and top tips
Micaela is the knowledge mobilisation and impact lead at the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre (HCRWEC). Since 2021, Micaela has developed and led the implementation of knowledge mobilisation and impact strategies, first for the Wales Covid-19 Evidence Centre, and then the HCRWEC. The aim of the Evidence Centres is to ensure that the best available research evidence is synthesised and made available to Welsh Government and Welsh NHS decision makers, to support their policy and practice decisions.
From 2019 – 2021, Micaela was the Cardiff University ‘Institutional Translational Partnership Award’ manager, funded by the Wellcome Trust. The aim of this work was to encourage a university wide culture change through training and supporting biomedical, social and humanities researchers to translate their research findings to benefit health.
Micaela also has extensive experience as a research fellow, including involvement in eight large multi-centre clinical trials funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA), NIHR Efficacy and Mechanisms Evaluations (EME), EU FP7 and the EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). These involved working with primary and secondary care clinicians and industry partners from across Europe.
Leah Morantz, Chart.PR MCIPR
Social media for public health
Leah is Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement for Public Health Wales, the national public health organisation for Wales. She is a purpose-led, strategic thinking communications leader with a background working in both public and private sectors. Leah is highly skilled at influencing stakeholders and getting things
done in complex operating environments. In her 20 year career, she has turned her hand to marketing, internal communications, PR and events, giving her broad experience across the spectrum of communications and marketing disciplines. She acts as a trusted advisor helping stakeholders to meet their business objectives through brilliant communications and marketing strategies.
Alongside her professional career, Leah has been involved in advocacy work, chairing the Maternity Services Liaison Committee for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and later Co-Vice Chair of the Women’s Network of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Both groups work to ensure the voices of women are central to the health and care pathways provided to them.
Leah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Concordia University in Montreal.
She is a Black Belt Leader in Internal Communications (Melcrum/Gartner) and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. She is Lay Member of the Faculty of Public Health Education Committee.
Dr Gavin Cleaver
Communicating Research Through Podcasts
Gavin is the sole Audio Producer for The Lancet family of journals. He produces a podcast for each of The Lancet’s specialty titles, and editorially directs, hosts, and produces The Lancet’s flagship podcast, The Lancet Voice. He also writes editorials for The Lancet. Before working at The Lancet, Gavin lectured in Political Philosophy at Cardiff University, and then went on to be a staff writer at the Dallas Observer newspaper.