The aim of this programme is to support and advance the study of biological, social and environmental influences on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of populations, and the development of interventions designed to improve population health or prevent diseases.
The Medical Research Council’s population health sciences programme embraces the study of biological, social and environmental influences on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of populations.
A key aim of population health research is to understand how and why health and wellbeing varies within and between populations and across the life course, and how the health of the public can be improved through clinical or public health interventions.
The public sector funding responsibility for population and public health research is shared between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the health departments of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
We lead on discovery work in population health sciences and all aspects of global public health research, with the health departments and NIHR responsible for more applied public health research in the UK.
The science we support
Our investments include epidemiological studies including population cohorts, prevention research, methodology, intervention development, infrastructure informatics and global public health. We fund applied public health research through multi-funded partnerships and in MRC units and centres.
Cohorts
For more than 50 years, MRC has funded a diverse range of population cohorts for longitudinal population studies that have provided important insights into the determinants of health, wellbeing and disease. They have also contributed to public health policy and changes in clinical practice. To maximise the value of these studies, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of how they fit into the context of the wider UK population cohort landscape.
We have carried out a review of the largest UK population cohort studies:
- to document the current investment in these cohorts
- to model how the studies will develop over the next 10 years
A total of 34 cohorts were included, 19 of which we either partly or fully funded. MRC funding accounts for just under £10 million of the total combined annual spend on these cohorts of £27.6 million. They span the whole life course from birth to 100 years of age, and together contain 2.2 million participants.
Read the strategic review: Maximising the value of UK population cohorts.
The cohort directory is a list of UK population cohorts. The directory aims to signpost users to individual cohorts to maximise the use and translation of findings of these valuable UK assets.
UK Biobank
The largest investment in cohorts in the UK goes to the UK Biobank, a major national resource for health research with the aim of improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses, including:
- cancer
- heart disease
- stroke
- diabetes
- arthritis
- osteoporosis
- eye disorders
- depression
- forms of dementia
Funded primarily by MRC and the Wellcome Trust, UK Biobank recruited 500,000 people aged between 40 and 69 years between 2006 and 2010 from across the country to take part in this project.
They have undergone DNA sequencing, provided blood, urine and saliva samples for future analysis, supplied detailed information about themselves and agreed to have their health followed.
This is developing into a powerful resource to help scientists discover why some people develop particular diseases and others do not.
The UK Biobank imaging project aims to collect brain, heart, and abdomen scans from 100,000 participants. Performing imaging at this scale is unprecedented and will allow researchers to identify associations between lifestyle, genetic factors, imaging-derived phenotypes and how these affect disease risk.
Population Research UK
Population Research UK (PRUK) is a new resource that will ensure that the full potential of longitudinal population studies is realised by addressing long-standing issues around:
- data discoverability
- access
- linkage
- cross-discipline collaboration
PRUK is funded by the UKRI Infrastructure Fund and is currently in a commissioning phase.
Adolescent Health Study
MRC’s Adolescent Health Study (AHS) is a new longitudinal population study and data platform. It will focus on the critical biological and social developments that occur during adolescence.
AHS aims to recruit and retain around 100,000 young people, aged eight to 18 at enrolment, and will follow their health and wellbeing for a period of 10 years. Recruitment will take place predominantly through schools.
The vision is to stimulate an exponential increase in research to understand health trajectories and outcomes for young people, with a key focus on health equity.
Strategic initiatives and partnerships
UK Prevention Research Partnership
The UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) is a £50 million multi-funder initiative that supports research into the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases to improve population health and reduce health inequalities in the UK.
The research addresses the upstream determinants of non-communicable diseases and is produced together with users such as policymakers, practitioners, health providers, the third sector and the public. The upstream determinants include, but are not limited to:
- the built and natural environment
- employment
- education
- welfare
- transport
- health and social care, and communication systems
- the policies of local and central government and of commercial enterprises
UKPRP is a new model of public health funding in the UK that seeks to:
- build and support interdisciplinary research teams to develop, implement and evaluate preventive policies, practices, designs and interventions which will enable change within complex adaptive systems to prevent non-communicable diseases
- deliver solutions for large-scale and cost-effective improvements in health and the prevention of non-communicable diseases that meet the needs of providers and policymakers and are responsive to the challenging timescales of policymaking
Population health improvement
Under UKRI’s health, ageing and wellbeing strategic theme we are funding an interdisciplinary network of research clusters, each addressing a separate yet complementary challenge.
They will generate research to improve the health of communities across the UK, reduce health inequalities, and develop and evaluate effective, long-lasting and environmentally sustainable interventions.
Units and centres
MRC supports the following units and centres, which study the various determinants of population health:
- MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow
- MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, University of Southampton
- MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
- MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, UCL
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol
- MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge
- MRC Population Health Research Unit at the University of Oxford
- MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London
How we fund population health sciences
We fund population health sciences through boards and panels, centres and units, various fellowships and multi-funder partnerships such as the UKPRP and UK Biobank.
We also support public health sciences in a global context including through our units in Africa. We support interventions development for public health, in both the UK and globally, through MRC’s public health intervention development scheme.
Applications for new longitudinal population health studies based on cohorts are reviewed by the Longitudinal Population Studies Strategic Advisory Panel.
Boards and panels
Our boards and panels include:
- Infections and Immunity Board
- Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board
- Neurosciences and Mental Health Board
- Population and Systems Medicine Board
- Applied Global Health Research Board
- Better Methods, Better Research panel
- Public Health Intervention Development
- Longitudinal Population Studies Strategic Advisory Panel
Fellowships
MRC fellowships provide outstanding scientists with exceptional opportunities to develop their careers, by concentrating on challenging research and gaining the broader experience that is essential to a future leadership role.
They can support the development of talented individuals to strengthen the UK population health research base.