UK Public Health Science conference ECR event

Date: Thursday 24 November 2022

Time: 3-6pm

Location: Kibble Suite, Grosvenor Hotel, Glasgow

The UK Public Health Science conference Early Career Researcher (ECR) event provides a platform for Early Career Researchers to connect and exchange knowledge and expertise.  This year’s event will feature inspiring talks on the continued importance of public health in our communities, including its successes and challenges, with examples from Scotland.  

The ECR event will take place on Thursday 24 November 2022 from 3-6pm at the conference venue (Grosvenor Hotel, Glasgow) and is open to registered conference delegates self-identifying as Early Career Researchers at no additional cost. 

Book your place at the conference and the ECR event through the Hg3 booking site here.

Provisional outline for the event (speaker order and titles may change)

15:00Welcome and housekeeping
15:05Welcome address
15:15Talk 1 – Dr David Walsh, Public Health Programme Manager, University of Glasgow Understanding the political dimensions of health inequalities – examples from Scotland
15:45Talk 2 – Mike Burns, Assistant Chief Officer at Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership Inequalities in child welfare: putting research into practice in Glasgow
16:15Comfort break
16:30Talk 3 Dr Janet Greenlees,  Reader in History, Glasgow Caledonian University Addressing maternal health inequalities – a history of strategies from Glasgow
17:00Talk 4 Dr Phil Mackie, Public Health Consultant, NHS GrampianSustainability in research for ECRs
17:30Closing
17:35-18:00Themed networking session*

* The 8 themed groups for the networking session will be:

  1. Maternal and child health
  2. Communicable diseases, including Covid and sexual health
  3. Health inequalities, including inclusion of marginalised populations
  4. Mental health, violence, abuse, and substance use
  5. Food systems, diet, and physical activity
  6. Public health policy, including health economics
  7. Intervention development and evaluation
  8. Ageing and health of older people
  9. ECR career progression

Learn more about our speakers:

Mike Burns

Mike is currently the Assistant Chief Officer for Children’s services in Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership. A career spanning 36 years in social work and 16 years in integrated services. He has worked in 6 Local Authorities in Scotland and as a Team Leader in Child Protection in Melbourne Australia. His current post spans across over 2,200 staff and a budget of circa £166M. Mike is also the lead for North East Glasgow on the Community Planning Partnership.

He has been a professional representative on the Scottish Governments National Implementation on getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), the Practice Development Panel for GIRFEC, the Children’s Improvement Partnership, the Realigning Children Services Board, Taskforce on Early Years and Early Intervention, the Child Protection Reform Programme, and the Raising Attainment Group. He previously provided advice when Convenor to the Brock review in relation to Child Protection. 

Mike has been a member of Social Work Scotland for over 16 years. He was previously the Convenor for the Children and Families Committee from 2013 to 2016 and Vice Convenor from 2016 to 2018. He is currently the Vice convenor of Social Work Scotland.

The venue and catering for the ECR event have been funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) UK

UK Public Health Science 2022: a call for abstracts 

The Public Health Science: A National Conference Dedicated to New Research in UK Public Health, will be held in Glasgow, UK, on Nov 25, 2022, and we are delighted to invite abstract submissions. This year marks a decade since the inaugural conference, which celebrated the talent and creativity of the public health research community in the UK and Ireland. This vision remains at the heart of the conference, which provides a platform to highlight excellence in public health science and enable discussion of important public health issues; the latest public health perspectives and science; and their implications for public health practice, policy, health services, and research. 

COVID-19 has brought new challenges for those working in public health to design, deliver, commission, or evaluate public health services. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have amplified many of the inequalities that are pervasive in our communities. However, in the pandemic’s long shadow, the public health community can re-lay the foundations for a fairer society that focuses not only on health outcomes, but also on wellbeing, equity, inclusiveness, and sustainability. 

In this tenth anniversary year of the public health conference, we intend to provide a focus on the achievements, strengths, and exceptional talent of public health science over the past 10 years in the UK and Ireland. We therefore welcome submissions from all disciplines that affect public health, and we particularly seek interdisciplinary abstracts that look forward at how best to rebuild and strengthen our public health systems to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities after COVID-19 in an evidence-based way, whether such evidence is drawn directly from pandemic learning or from broader contexts. We welcome perspectives from those working across all sectors and disciplines, including but not limited to the UK National Health Service, local authorities and commissioned services, charities and advocacy organisations, universities, and government bodies. 

The conference will consist of oral paper presen- tations, chaired poster sessions, and keynote speeches. Submissions are now open for oral and poster presentations. Abstracts can be submitted under any of the three core themes: 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 can have been undertaken anywhere in the world, but must be relevant to public health science, practice, and policy in the UK and Ireland. We encourage submissions from individuals in the early stages of their careers. 

Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, be written in English, and contain no references, tables, or figures. Submissions should include the following sections: background (including context and aim); methods; findings; and interpretation. Please also include a non-declaratory title (including a study descriptor—eg, retrospective cohort study, randomised controlled trial); names, titles, highest degrees, and affiliations of authors; postal and email address for the corresponding author; any funding received (please also state if none); and a brief summary of each author’s contributions and competing interests. Abstract guidelines are available on The Lancet’s website. Any abstracts that are not correctly formatted will be rejected without peer review. Reports of randomised controlled trials should follow the CONSORT extension for abstracts guidance. Abstracts should not have been previously published elsewhere and must include some results (results of ongoing analyses are acceptable). The abstracts that are accepted after peer review will be published online by The Lancet

Submit your abstract as a Microsoft Word document through The Lancet’s online submission system, stating in your covering letter that the submission is for the UK Public Health Science Conference 2022. All abstracts will be considered for oral and poster presentations. The deadline for abstract submission is May 16, 2022. After The Lancet’s peer review process, successful applicants will be informed of acceptance of their abstract for oral or poster presentation by Sept 16, 2022. 

In recognition of the contribution that early career researchers make to public health, we will again be awarding prizes for the best oral and poster presentations by early career researchers. These prizes are sponsored by the NIHR School for Public Health Research, a partnership of UK academic centres with excellence in public health. If you wish to be entered into this competition, please indicate in your covering letter whether you are a pre- PhD researcher (eg, MSc student, foundation year trainee, research assistant, public health trainee, or academic clinical fellow), PhD student, or postdoctoral trainee (eg, clinical lecturers, clinician scientist fellows, early career postdoctoral, or equivalent posts). In addition, the conference will be preceded by an early career researcher event and networking conference dinner on Nov 24, 2022. 

In line with our commitment to work towards delivering a net-zero conference, details of the conference carbon reduction plans and carbon offsetting will be published on the website in due course. 

Public Health Science 2022: 10th Anniversary Conference

We are delighted to announce that the 10th UK Public Health Science conference will take place in person at the Hilton in Glasgow on Friday 25 November 2022.  Our Early Career Researcher event and pre-conference networking dinner will take place the day before the conference on Thursday 24 November 2022. 

The Call for Abstracts for the conference will be launched mid-March via The Lancetour websiteour mailing list, and our Twitter feed.  Abstracts are invited for oral and poster presentations.  Abstracts should follow The Lancet guidelines for abstracts.  The deadline for abstract submissions is May 16, 2022.  Accepted abstracts will be published online in The Lancet.

Research described in the abstracts can be done anywhere in the world but must be relevant to public health science, policy, and practice in the UK and Ireland.  We especially invite abstract submissions from those at the early stages of their career and from disciplines not traditionally associated with public health, such as engineering, built environment, energy and resources, planning, and natural sciences, insofar as the research relates to public health.

Registration

Registration for the conference will open in Summer 2022.  Registration fees will be announced on our website and via our mailing list.  Reduced fees are available for trainees and students.

Keep in touch

Visit our website to sign up to our mailing list or follow us on Twitter: @UKPHSci

We look forward to seeing you in November!

Public Health Science 2022 Organising Committee

Early Career Researcher pre-conference event programme

Always wanted to know how to most effectively build your career in public health?  Then join us for the Early Career Researcher pre-conference event to the UK Public Health Science conference 2021!  This year’s ECR event focuses on career progression for ECRs.  We’ll be sharing our top tips for a successful career both in and outside of academia. 

Date: Thu 25 November

Venue: virtual meeting via Zoom

How to attend: This event is open to all registered delegates of the UK Public Health Science conference 2021. You can register for the conference via the HG3 booking website.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The UK Public Health Science ECR event organising committee.

Programme

13.00   Welcome and housekeeping

13.05   Welcome address by Professor Ashley Adamson

Director of NIHR School of Public Health Research 

13.15   Experiences working in global health by Dr Julianne Williams

Technical Officer at World Health Organization

13.45   Learning from mistakes – how to successfully apply for grants as a postdoc by Dr Georgia Black

Principal Research Fellow at Department of Applied Health Research, UCL

14.15   Comfort break

14.30   The changing expectations of progressing from ECR to senior researcher and beyond by Professor Rob Aldridge

Professor of Public Health Data Science at the Institute of Health Informatics, UCL

15.00   Navigating career uncertainty like an entrepreneur by Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi

Transformational Coach and Consultant and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Epidemiology and Public Health Department, University College London.

15.30   Closing

15.35 – 16.00 Themed network sessions in breakout rooms

Conference Programme 2021

The conference will be a virtual conference held on Friday 26 November, 2021. You can book your place at the conference through the HG3 booking website here.

* We gratefully acknowledge the NIHR School for Public Health Research for sponsoring prizes at the conference *

10:00 Welcome and introduction to the day

Charlotte Vrinten

10:05 Creativity and innovation in public health science

  1. ‘Dear Doctor’: Results from a randomised controlled trial of a text message intervention to reduce burnout in trainee anaesthetists – Alix Brazier
  2. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychotropic medication uptake in Northern Ireland: a population wide trend analysis – Lisa Kent
  3. ‘I’ve found the whole thing very isolating’: A qualitative study exploring the role of people providing informal support to survivors of domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic – Alison Gregory
  4. How do income changes impact on mental health for working-age adults? A systematic review and meta-analysis – Rachel Thomson
  5. Linking fathers and children in administrative data for public health research: A systematic scoping review – Irina Lut

10:45 Comfort break

11.00 New methodological approaches to public health science

  1. It’s been up and down’: a qualitative study exploring the perspectives on living through COVID-19 for individuals who experience homelessness – Emma Adams
  2. Epidemiology of pre-existing multimorbidity in pregnant women in the UK in 2018: a cross sectional study using CPRD, SAIL and SMR – Sian Ing Lee 
  3. Creating an e-cohort of unpaid carers and understanding their mental health needs in Wales: a data linkage study – Fangzhou Huang
  4. Mortality outcomes of care-experienced children: evidence from Children’s Health in Care in Scotland (CHiCS), a population-wide administrative data cohort study – Denise Brown
  5. Understanding the potentials and pitfalls of using digital phenotypes to measure population mental health and well-being – Valerio Maggio

11.40 Lightning presentations session A

12.30 Lunch break

13.00 Implementing public health science in policy and practice

  1. Resilience of elective cancer surgery systems during COVID-19 lockdowns: international, prospective cohort study of planned surgery for 15 tumour types in 61 countries – James Glasbey & Aneel Bhangu
  2. Challenges to self-isolation among contacts of cases of COVID-19: a national telephone survey in Wales – Kate Isherwood
  3. Scientific advice and Covid-19 policy making in the UK: an oral history study – Paul Atkinson
  4. Collaborating or challenging: public health roles in alcohol premises licensing, a multi-stakeholder qualitative interview study – Rachel O’Donnell
  5. Impact of restricting advertising of products high in fat, sugar and salt across the London transport network on food and drink purchasing: a controlled interrupted time series using longitudinal purchase data – Amy Yau

13.40 Lightning presentations session B

14.30 Keynote speech

Katherine Trebeck

15.00 Closing remarks and prize announcement 

Audrey Ceschia, The Lancet Public Health 

Lightning presentations session B

  1. ‘Dear Doctor’: An interview study to understand perceptions of a text message intervention to reduce burnout in trainee anaesthetists – Alix Brazier
  2. A pilot study of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) community mass testing for COVID-19: Who attends and who tests positive? – Kate Levin
  3. A qualitative informed economic evaluation of the patients concerns inventory (PCI) versus standard treatment pathway in the management of patients with head and neck cancer Economic evaluation of PCI – Victory Ezeofor
  4. A qualitative study of young people’s perspectives on inequalities in health – Hannah Fairbrother
  5. Caring intensity and socio-economic position for unpaid carers’ mental health and wellbeing in Wales: a cross-sectional data linkage study – Fangzhou Huang
  6. An observational study investigating the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with anorexia nervosa – Michael Taylor
  7. Association between lactation and maternal risk of type 2 diabetes – a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies – Ana-Catarina Pinho-Gomes
  8. Associations of neighbourhood housing density with loneliness and social isolation: a cross-sectional study using UK Biobank – Ka Yan Lai
  9. A co-production study examining COVID recovery from the community perspective – Andrew Divers
  10. Capacity planning for acute hospital inpatient care and adult critical care in England using hospital administrative data – Violeta Balinskaite
  11. A Qualitative Evaluation to Assess the Impact of the Newcastle Parent Infant Partnership (NEWPIP) Approach – Samantha Burns
  12. Evaluating the impacts of tiered restrictions introduced in England, during October and December 2020 on COVID-19 cases: A synthetic control study – Xingna Zhang
  13. Characteristics of yoga providers and their sessions and students in the UK: a cross-sectional survey – Gamze Nalbant
  14. Developing, implementing and evaluating “Sit Less at Work” interventions in diverse organisations – an exploration of contextual factors and the testing of a novel operational framework – Kelly Mackenzie
  15. Does health status mediate the association between food insecurity and life satisfaction in the Ireland: Using Gallup World Poll survey data in 2018 – Davod Ahmadi
  16. Increased COVID-19 related mortality rate for rare disease patients: a retrospective cohort study in Genomics England – Honghan Wu
  17. Integrating a simple and brief home-based exercise programme within a UK stop smoking service: a mixed method feasibility study – Sarah Allison
  18. Does social media influence adolescent engagement in health risk behaviours? A systematic review and meta-analysis – Amrit Kaur Purba
  19. Estimating the health impact of individual’s dietary change across multiple health outcomes: a conceptual and simulation model – Penny Breeze
  20. Eudaemonic design as a symbiotic methodological approach to human health and environmental well-being: a qualitative study – Jenna Mikus
  21. SARS-CoV-2 testing, infections and hospital admissions with COVID-19 in children and young people in Scotland: birth cohort study – Graziella Favarato
  22. Exposure to green-blue spaces and mental health: a retrospective e-cohort study in Wales – Daniel Thompson
  23. A national, cross-sectional survey of individuals engaged with community-led action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales – Charlotte Grey
  24. Estimating the direct and indirect risks of becoming food insecure during the COVID-19 pandemic using cross-sectional UK cohort data analysis – Susanna Mills
  25. Implementing national surveillance of disseminated gonococcal infection: preliminary findings from cross-sectional survey data in England, 2020-2021 – Rachel Merrick
  26. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of shielded children and children living in shielded households in Wales: A primary care data linkage study – Laura Cowley
  27. Informing public health messages and strategies to raise awareness of pre-conception health: a public consultation – Danielle Schoenaker
  28. Oxford Understanding Relationships, Sex, Power, Abuse, and Consent Experiences (OUR SPACE), a cross-sectional survey – Bridget Steele
  29. Nonlinear isocaloric substitution analysis: An example using the UK Biobank prospective cohort study – Frederick Ho
  30. Determinants of diabetes, hypertension, stroke and coronary heart disease in Black Caribbean and Black African women in South London: findings from 70,582 primary care records from 2000 to 2018 – Sarah Yousif
  31. The impact of worsened ability to engage in social and physical activity on the mental health of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic Analysis from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging – Theodore Cosco
  32. Racial and ethnic disparities in multi-morbidity in women of reproductive age in the UK: a data linkage study – Raquel Catalao
  33. The importance of adaptive coping, peer support, psychological input and team resilience among fire and rescue service workers in maintaining wellbeing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross sectional survey – Nicola Cogan
  34. Sex differences in functional limitation level and the role of socioeconomic factors: a multi-cohort analysis – Mikaela Bloomberg
  35. The Use of Health Protocol Compliance Integrated Monitoring System for Informing Public Health Actions during COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia – Dewi Nur Aisyah
  36. Small area inequalities in fruit and vegetable intake in England: a spatial microsimulation approach to support local decision-making – Ellen Schwaller
  37. Rehousing older social housing tenants: a mixed methods study – Hannah Scott
  38. Community-academic partnerships addressing local health inequalities during COVID-19 – Bethany Golding
  39. Local Authority Research Systems – A qualitative study to inform the development of a South Gloucestershire Council wide research system – Michael Dalili
  40. Mitigating the Severity of Child Homelessness in the UK: A Global Mixed Method Systematic Review – Kaushik Sarkar

Lightning presentations session A

  1. Individuals with lived experience of homelessness and their COVID-19 outcomes in Wales: a data linkage study – Jiao Song
  2. The impact of school and peer connectedness on adolescent mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal panel survey – Emily Widnall
  3. Developing a conversation about identifying community needs to embrace well-being through social prescribing interventions – Llinos Spencer
  4. COVID-19 and pre-pandemic all-cause inequalities in disability-adjusted life years due to multiple deprivation: a Scottish Burden of Disease study – Grant Wyper
  5. Quality of primary care delivered to children with asthma in South London: a population cohort study of primary care records to establish baseline for a cluster RCT of an integrated child focused care model – Elizabeth Cecil
  6. Research-informed decision making: a mixed-method study investigating research capacity and activity within an English local authority – Dilupa Samarakoon 
  7. Variation in clinical levels of common mental disorder symptoms in the general population throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal cohort study – Rob Saunders
  8. A novel approach to estimate the local population denominator to calculate disease incidence for hospital-based health events in England – James Campling
  9. Global prevalence and nature of sexual violence among higher education institution students: a systematic review with meta-analyses – Bridget Steele
  10. A multi-agency focus group exploring contextual and thematic responses to violence prevention – Rachel Bath
  11. Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON): intervention development to improve infant feeding, care and dental hygiene practices in South Asian infants aged < 2 years in East London through women’s group participatory learning and action cycles – Shereen Allaham
  12. A Qualitative Study, of the Scottish Homeless Service Provisions, Through the Production of Reflexive Mapping Exercises – Kirsty Dickson
  13. What are clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions towards the use of artificial intelligence decision aids to inform shared decision-making? A systematic review – Nehal Hassan
  14. An exploration of the uptake of asymptomatic COVID-19 lateral flow testing in Birmingham: survey and qualitative research – Ruth Pritchett
  15. Preventing childhood obesity with combined hypothetical interventions on interpregnancy maternal smoking and weight: applying the parametric g-formula to a UK population-based cohort – Elizabeth Taylor
  16. Are the Eat Well Guide and Nutrient Profiling Models consistent in the UK? – Ana-Catarina Pinho-Gomes
  17. An observational study detailing design and implementation of a university-based COVID-19 testing programme – Claire Blackmore
  18. Facilitating hospital discharge through housing support: a mixed-methods evaluation of a housing association support service in two UK hospitals – Eleanor Holding
  19. A scoping review of the evidence available for the use of salons as health promotion environments, for the management and prevention of non-communicable diseases in ethnically diverse women – Prerana Kaneri
  20. Association between green space and time spent in nature with subjective wellbeing: cross-sectional data linkage study – Joanne Garrett
  21. Qualitative insights through a systems-lens of community-led support in two diverse communities in South Wales in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – Lucia Homolova
  22. Exploring the potential of a school-based online health and wellbeing screening tool: Professional stakeholders and young people’s perspectives and experiences – Nicholas Woodrow
  23. Balancing pragmatism and rigour in public health research during a pandemic: measuring the impact of COVID-19 on sexual and reproductive health in Britain (Natsal-COVID) – Emily Dema
  24. Pre-trial health economic modelling of behavioural weight-management interventions based on expected impact on mechanisms of action – Sarah Bates
  25. The association between Public health team engagement in local alcohol licensing and public health and  crime in England and Scotland – Claire Ferraro
  26. Identifying patients with first Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) diagnosis in routine databases – Violeta Balinskaite
  27. The impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on levels of health care use and mental health of the clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in Wales: a population-scale data linkage study – Laura Bentley
  28. Mixed methods study to explore the role of community-supported agriculture in building health and sustainability into UK diets – Susanna Mills
  29. Placing Health Equity at the Heart of the COVID-19 Recovery: data analysis from the first Welsh Health Equity Status Report initiative – James Allen
  30. Health impacts of a more equal society: a microsimulation study – Chris Kypridemos
  31. Establishing a service improvement network to impact access to care and treatment outcomes in community mental health: a series of retrospective cohort studies – Joshua Buckman
  32. How weight and body size affect learning: A qualitative exploration of experiences in secondary school – Rebecca Langford
  33. Do physical activity interventions combining self-monitoring with other components provide an additional benefit compared to self-monitoring alone? A systematic review and meta-analysis – Tomas Vetrovsky 
  34. Is the outsourcing of healthcare services to the private sector associated with higher mortality rates? An observational analysis of ‘creeping privatisation’ in England’s Clinical Commissioning Groups, 2013-2020 – Benjamin Goodair
  35. Born in Wales: Population birth outcomes in 2020 and experiences of pregnant women during the Covid-19 pandemic: a mixed methods study using routine data – Hope Jones
  36. Higher density cities experienced more adverse psychological impacts from environmental noise: a crowd-sourced big data analysis – Huan Tong
  37. Characterising the accrual sequence of multiple long-term condition multimorbidity (MLTC-M): an exploratory retrospective cohort study using birth cohort and routine primary care data – Emilia Holland
  38. Understanding risk and protective factors to railway workers’ mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross sectional survey of railway keyworkers in the UK – Nicola Cogan
  39. Review of interventions and guidelines for promoting maternal and child health in the interconception period – Daniella Watson
  40. Domains of precarious employment and associations with self-reported health: a cross-sectional analysis – Benjamin Gray
  41. Attitudes towards COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented at St. Mark’s Bowel Cancer Screening Centre: a cross-sectional analysis of survey data from an ethnically diverse region in London – Robert Kerrison

Call for abstracts 2021

We are delighted to invite abstract submissions for Public Health Science: A National Conference Dedicated to New Research in UK Public Health, to be held as a virtual conference this year on 26 November, 2021. Now in its ninth year, this annual conference aims to showcase the diversity, quality, and impact of public health research in the UK and Ireland. The conference provides a platform for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers – including those early in their careers – to discuss important public health issues; the latest public health perspectives and science; and their implications for public health practice, policy, health services, and research.

One of the greatest challenges of our time is the climate crisis and its impacts on environments, livelihoods, health, and wellbeing. Climate change has been called the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century and especially affects the most vulnerable populations in society. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the social and health inequalities that it has laid bare, highlights converging climate and health crises.

Although submissions can be related to any area of public health, for this year’s conference we welcome interdisciplinary submissions from researchers, charities, local authorities, National Health Service workers, and policy makers at the intersection between environment, sustainability, and public health, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference will consist of oral paper presentations, chaired poster sessions, and keynote speeches. Submissions are now open for oral and poster presentations. Abstracts can be submitted under any of the three core themes: a) creativity in public health science; b) new methodological approaches to public health science; or c) 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 and Ireland. We particularly encourage submissions from individuals in the early stages of their careers.  Contributions are also encouraged from disciplines not traditionally associated with health, such as engineering, built environment, energy and resources, planning, and natural sciences, where the research relates to public health.

In recognition of the contribution that early career researchers make to public health, we will again be awarding prizes for the best oral and poster presentations by early career researchers. These prizes are sponsored by The Lancet and the NIHR School for Public Health Research. If you wish to be entered into this competition, please indicate in your covering letter whether you are a pre-PhD researcher (eg, MSc student, foundation year trainee, research assistant, public health trainee, or academic clinical fellow), PhD student, or postdoctoral trainee (eg, clinical lecturers, clinician scientist fellows, or equivalent posts).

Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, be written in English, and contain no references, tables, or figures. Submissions should include the following sections: background (including context and aim); methods; findings; and interpretation. Please also include a non-declaratory title (including a study descriptor – eg, retrospective cohort study, RCT); names, titles, highest degrees, and affiliations of authors; postal and email address for the corresponding author; any funding received (please also state if none); and a brief summary of each author’s contributions and competing interests.  Abstract guidelines are available on The Lancet’s website. Reports of randomised controlled trials should follow the CONSORT extension for abstracts guidance. Abstracts should not have been previously published elsewhere and must include some results (results of ongoing analyses are acceptable). Abstracts accepted after peer review will be published by The Lancet, online and in print.

Submit your abstract as a Microsoft Word document through The Lancet’s online submission system, stating in your covering letter that the submission is for the Public Health Science conference. All abstracts will be considered for oral and poster presentations. The deadline for abstract submission is 14 June 2021.  After The Lancet’s peer review process, successful applicants will be informed of the acceptance of their abstract for oral or poster presentation by September 15, 2021.

UK Public Health Science Early Career Researcher Event 2020

What makes a great publishable paper?  How to use big data in your Public Health research? What funding opportunities are available to Early Career Researchers in Public Health?  And how to do your first peer or grant review?  This year’s UK Public Health Science event for Early Career Researchers in Public Health will provide you with an answer to all these questions!

Due to the current pandemic, the UK Public Health Science conference has been postponed to 26 November 2021 in Glasgow (please put this date in your diaries). 

The conference has always been a great place for Public Health researchers and others to network and share ideas. To keep some of that momentum going during these time, the UK Public Health Science Conference Organising Committee are hosting a free, online Early Career Researcher Event this year.

Date and time:  Friday 27 November 2020 from 13:00 to 16:00.

Venue: online, virtual event

Registration: If you weren’t able to register for the event you will now be able to view it via live-stream here.

Programme

13:00

Welcome and introduction

Prof Rob Aldridge, University College London

13.05

Opening Remarks

Prof Dame Anne Johnson, University College London

13:15

Providing critical feedback: peer reviewing as an ECR

Dr Amy Nimegeer, University of Glasgow

Receiving your first request to peer review an academic article or grant proposal can be intimidating. In this session, Dr Amy Nimegeer from the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow will cover the basics of how to approach the task with confidence, exploring the process and key principles of peer review for both academic journals and funding bodies.

13:45

How to publish in The Lancet journals

Dr Rupa Sarkar, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Digital Health

14:15

Comfort break

14:30

Healthy Cities: Tracking Population Health from Grocery Bags and Smart Watches 

Prof Daniele Quercia, Department Head of Social Dynamics at Nokia Bell Labs Cambridge (UK) and Professor of Urban Informatics at the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) at King’s College London.

In this session, we will see how to aggregate both readings from consumer wearable devices and records of food purchases to track people’s well-being at scale. From 11,600 Nokia Health wearables, we collected readings of steps, sleep, and heart rate in the entire cities of London and San Francisco over the course of 1 year. Christmas and New Year’s eve were associated only with short-lived and minor disruptions, while both Brexit and Trump’s election greatly impacted people’s sleep and even heart rates. Then, for another entire year in London, we studied the association between food purchases in grocery stores, as measured by the digital traces of customer loyalty cards, and consumption of medicines. Our results show that analytics of digital records of grocery purchases can be used as a cheap and scalable tool for health surveillance: the distribution of the food nutrients is far more predictive of food-related illnesses (e.g., diabetes) than socio-economic conditions.

15:00

Medical Research Council support for research careers and funding opportunities

Dr Samantha Moore, Programme Manager, Training and Careers, Medical Research Council.

This session will provide an overview of how MRC funds research, supports research careers and the funding opportunities available for early career researchers.

15:30

Peer discussion and closing remarks

2020 conference postponed

Following consultation with The Lancet and others, we have decided to postpone this year’s conference.  We had planned to hold the conference in Glasgow and the venue has kindly agreed to let us postpone to 26 November 2021 – so please put this new date in your diaries.

The conference has always been a great place for Public Health researchers and others to network and share ideas.  To keep some of this momentum going during these times, we are still hoping we may be able to hold an Early Career Researcher event on 27 November 2020, perhaps set up as regional hubs that are virtually connected. We are in the early stages of planning this event and will keep you updated on this website and through our mailing list that you can sign up to here.