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How can we develop joint research agendas

Live Well Gateshead:

Knowledge mobilisation and building partnerships through embedded research

AskFuse was approached by Gateshead Council requesting an evaluation of the 'Live Well Gateshead' programme, with the aim of applying the learning to other projects within the Public Health department.  At the time, Live Well Gateshead refocussed resources towards the impact of the social determinants of health, their prevention and early intervention.

AskFuse supported this enquiry by establishing a partnership between Fuse and Gateshead Council Public Health to support the use of research evidence within the Council.  This was achieved by establishing an innovative role for an “embedded” researcher in the public health team.  As part of the role, the researcher was commissioned to evaluate the “Live Well Gateshead” project.

This partnership between Fuse and Gateshead public health team, facilitated by AskFuse, resulted in:

  • A Teesside University Fuse researcher, being based three days a week in the public health team, to help inform the design of public health interventions, and to effectively measure the outcomes of these interventions. 
  • Increasing the awareness among the academics of the evidence and evaluation needs in the Local Authority
  • Developing the skills in research and evaluation within the Public Health team.

The evaluation led to a longer-term collaboration to support joint research bids on topics such as malnutrition, child obesity and social prescribing.

AskFuse is still involved in the partnership as part of the advisory group for the embedded research project.  The embedded researcher role has developed capacity through engaging communities experiencing health inequalities, enabling responsive, collaborative public health approaches to be developed. 

Find out more about the work of embedded researcher Mandy Cheetham.

For more information, please contact:
AskFuse manager: Peter van der Graaf
Phone: 01642 342757
Email: p.van.der.Graaf@tees.ac.uk

Last modified: Wed, 24 Mar 2021 10:19:42 GMT