University selected to be part of UK’s largest independent gambling harms research centre

The initiative builds on extensive research into gambling harms carried out by the Peninsula Medical School and School of Psychology
A close-up image of a woman playing a gambling game on her mobile phone at a casino

University selected to be part of UK’s largest independent gambling harms research centre

The initiative builds on extensive research into gambling harms carried out by the Peninsula Medical School and School of Psychology
The University of Plymouth has been chosen as one of the key partners in a new initiative that will direct world-leading research on how to tackle and prevent gambling harms.
The Gambling Harms Research UK (GHR-UK) Evidence Centre will work with government, health bodies, charities, and people with lived experience of gambling to strengthen policy, practice, and public understanding across the UK.
One of its main roles will be to coordinate a cohort of 19 GHR-UK Innovation Partnerships, which will drive research to fill current evidence gaps and support the development of responses to gambling-related harms.
The University will lead one of those Innovation Partnerships, building on extensive research into gambling harms carried out by researchers based in its Peninsula Medical School and School of Psychology.
It has been awarded £150,000 for an initial 12-month project that will map gambling harms and recovery in the UK, laying the groundwork for a better understanding of what gambling harm prevention, protection, reduction, and recovery look like.

Over recent years, we have produced a body of research around the major wellbeing impacts associated with gambling harms.

This next project will enable a deep understanding of how we can best tackle those harms, right from innovative preventative actions such as new educational interventions, through to long-term support for those in recovery. This will all align with fundamental changes in gambling treatment and support at a national level, with greater involvement of the NHS and public health teams.

James CloseDr James Close
Associate Professor in Medicine and Psychology

This is a brilliant opportunity to work with colleagues in the gambling harm and recovery sphere, both locally in the South West and nationally, to enhance our understanding and support harm reduction.

It will enable us to build on our growing body of research measuring and understanding gambling harm, and expands our network of researchers, policy makers, and service providers. We’re also continuing our ethos of evidence informed co-design, and are excited to centre the voices and perspectives of those with lived experience in this project too.

Ryan StattonDr Ryan Statton
Research Fellow in Psychology

The Plymouth project is being conducted in partnership with a range of regional and national organisations, including: ARA Recovery for All; BetKnowMore UK; Devon ICB; GamblingHarms UK; GLEN; Gordon Moody; NatCen; Primary Care Gambling Service; Public Health Plymouth; and Ygam.
Over the next 12 months, they will take insights from policy, literature, and lived experience to generate a framework outlining how the drivers and consequences of harm can be tackled. In doing this, researchers will carry out a rapid evidence review and seek feedback from people active in the field.
The logic model developed through this process will also include a visual map of intervention opportunities, a register of all the stakeholders in the space, and a reflection guide for co-production in the gambling research space.
The partnership will then produce a flexible toolkit that offers evaluation templates and measurement tools for public health, clinical, and research use, and will apply the toolkit to a handful of real-life examples to demonstrate its utility.
The Gambling Harms Research UK (GHR-UK) Evidence Centre is a major part of the Research Programme on Gambling, delivered by UK Research and Innovation and funded through the government's Gambling Levy.
 

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