SPHR Annual Scientific Meeting & ResNet Day 2025
Posted 22 May 2025
The SPHERE Team was fortunate to attend the NIHR School for Public Health Research annual event, this year hosted by the University of Bristol. Two days were packed full of opportunities and updates to network and learn about the experiences and progress of existing projects. We heard from project partners across England working on each of the four major research programmes.
Professor Ashley Adamson, Director of NIHR SPHR chaired both days, introducing a plethora of guest and keynote speakers including Professor Chris Bonell, Professor of Public Health and Sociology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine alongside those from a range of public and policy facing organisations.
In addition, SPHR funded trainees included Exeter’s Leah Attwell and Joe Coombes provided lightning talks alongside fellow PhD students across SPHR, and SPHERE's Daniel Mutanda, amongst other award holders, delivered a pre-recorded innovative digital story summarising research work conducted over the past few years.
We congratulate SPHERE's Rowan Streckfuss Davis as successful runner up for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion prize for recruitment of young people to interviews and focus groups to inform the Public Mental Health project 'the 4S study' (About 4S - The 4S Study).
The day before the ASM, many SPHERE early career researchers also attended the annual NIHR SPHR Research Network (ResNet) day in Bristol which was co-chaired by Professor Ashley Adamson, Daniel Mutanda and SPHR funded trainee Lizzy Winstone.
With its theme of 'Bridging Inclusion and Impact', the day brought early career researchers, practitioners and partners into conversation about how public health research can better connect with the people and communities it aims to serve.
The morning agenda included: news of what ResNet has been up to; celebrations of network members who have received research funding via ResNet awards; updates from our alumni; speed networking; and a keynote delivered by Professor Jim McManus, National Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health Wales. In the afternoon, Dr Lucy Anderson (SPHR Transdisciplinary Fellow) led a workshop on how to work meaningfully with NGOs and SPHERE's Director Professor GJ Melendez-Torres (NIHR Academy Associate Dean for Researcher Inclusion) led a session on inclusive research, particularly in light of NIHR’s new requirements.
Before wrapping up, Michelle Wilson-Chalmers, SPHR’s new Knowledge Exchange Broker, and Bronia Arnott (via a recording) ran a session on knowledge exchange. Their message was simple but powerful: if we want our research to matter, we must take time to understand who it’s for.
There was a lot to take in, but people were willing to share, to ask difficult questions and to sit with complexity; a reminder that building a more inclusive and impactful research culture isn’t a solo effort. It’s something we have to do together, with openness and care.
