The NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Plymouth

Aiming to tackle the determinants of health inequalities in Plymouth
Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth Hoe, Plymouth UK

The NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Plymouth

Aiming to tackle the determinants of health inequalities in Plymouth

Aiming to tackle the determinants of health inequalities in Plymouth

The NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Plymouth is part of the NIHR and hosted by Plymouth City Council. It is delivered in partnership with the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Octopus (POP).
NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations enable local authorities to become more research-active, embedding a culture of evidence-based decision making. The NIHR has awarded £150 million to 30 HDRCs across the UK to build capacity for public health research focused on the wider determinants of health and health inequalities.
Working in partnership with Plymouth City Council, this project aims to tackle the determinants of health inequalities in Plymouth and provides opportunities to undertake research, ask challenging questions and understand how wider societal issues such as education, poverty, housing, planning, transport and employment influence the health of the communities in the city. The project aims to develop the culture and skills to ensure a learning approach informs decision making, and produce knowledge for use locally, and of value nationally, especially for coastal communities.

Objectives

  • Support changes aimed at addressing the wider determinants of health through a cultural change in relation to the use of evidence and evaluation
  • Carry out specific prioritised research projects related to The Plymouth Plan’s innovations to address the wider determinants of health
  • Successfully bid for external research funding
  • Build collaborations for sharing knowledge and carrying out research with other HDRCs and similar coastal communities.

Academic engagement

HDRC Plymouth embeds a joint research team within the council, enabling real-time collaboration between academics, policymakers, and practitioners. Areas of focus include: 
  • Support for children and families
  • Work which concentrates on issues which impact on personal wellbeing such as food security, housing and income and employment 
  • Work which considers themes where inequalities are starker (e.g. refugees, women and girls, and unpaid carers)
  • Community and neighbourhood directed work to support a stronger and stable voluntary and community sector
  • Internally in the council, cultural drivers such as organisational development and the use of data to inform decision making.
We welcome academic collaboration through:
  • Co-produced research with local government and community
  • Interdisciplinary projects addressing health determinants and inequalities
  • Knowledge exchange and impact-focused partnerships.

Further information

For project updates and engagement opportunities, please visit the NIHR HDRC Plymouth site hosted by Plymouth City Council.
 
 
 
 
 

Staff members working on the project

Publications
Westwood, S., Edmunds-Jones, G., Maguire, T., Hawley, S., Avent, H., Griffiths, J., Bates, R., Marley, J., Wallace, G., Harrell, R., Asthana, S., & Gradinger, F. (2025). Pilot Testing an Ecotherapy Program for Adolescence: Initial Findings and Methodological Reflections. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(5), 720. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22050720
Bell, L., Chapman, R., Ashton, C. et al. Baseline assessments of research capacity, capability and culture in UK local authorities: reflections from evaluators embedded in Health Determinants Research Collaborations. Health Res Policy Sys 23, 68 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-025-01323-x 
Dorr, C., Asthana, S., Elston, J., Gradinger, F., Preece, D., Schwartz, D., Scott, G., Wallace, G., & Harrell, R. (2025). Appreciating dissonance: Using open appreciative inquiry as a tool to generate cultural change. Teaching Public Administration, 43(2), 214-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/01447394251360762
Doyle, G., Mitchell, S., Hawley, S., Krysiak, K. and Gradinger, F. (2025) ‘Trusted Professional Multi-Agency Transitions for Young People Facing Multiple Disadvantage – Learning from Co-Production by a Third Sector Partner in the Plymouth Alliance, UK’, International Journal of Integrated Care, 25(3), p. 12. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.9055
Stevenson, K., Gradinger, F., Bond, N., Freeman, D., & Byng, R. (2025). Community Cancer Champions’ Project: Learning From the Design and Implementation of an Integrated Health and Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Asset-Based Community Development Project – A Case Study From Plymouth, England. International Journal of Integrated Care, 25(4), 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.9054
Miller, R., Nelson, M., Fullerton, I., Gradinger, F., Rees, J., & Saragosa, M. (2025). Voluntary & Community Organisations: Not the Third but the First Sector of Integrated Care?. International Journal of Integrated Care, 25(3), 29. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.10183
Pearce, S., Asthana S, Peason M, Dorman S, Harding R, Wyatt K, Byng, R., Gibson, A. (2025). Care of people at the end of their lives in the rural and coastal communities of the South West Peninsula of England: A participatory realist evaluation. (NIHR)
de Graaf, K., McKenzie, K., Asthana, S., Agarwal, S., Smith, R. (2025). On the Waterfront. A Key Cities report by the Key Cities Innovation Network, in association with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Key Cities. https://keycities.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Key-Cities-On-the-waterfront-March-2025.pdf
Sheaff R, Ellis Paine A, Exworthy M, Gibson A, Stuart J, Jochum V, et al. Consequences of how third sector organisations are commissioned in the NHS and local authorities in England: a mixed-methods study. Health Soc Care Deliv Res 2024;12(39). https://doi.org/10.3310/NTDT7965
Matt Bell, Gary Wallace, Anita O'Connor, Felix Gradinger (2024). Human Learning Systems Website. https://www.humanlearning.systems/hls-insights-findings-from-our-research-2024/
Gary Wallace, Felix Gradinger (2025). Towards Relational Public Services Conference 2025. https://www.complexityoutcomes.org/
Gary Wallace (2025). DEMOS Powering Public Service Reform: Making the centre work to liberate people and places. https://demos.co.uk/research/powering-public-service-reform-making-the-centre-work-to-liberate-people-and-places/
Toby Lowe, Dawn Plimmer, Hannah Hesselgreaves, Felix Gradinger, Gabriel Eichsteller (2024). Human Learning Systems: Radical Pragmatism. https://www.humanlearning.systems/uploads/WhatisHumanLearningSystemsRadicalPragmatism.pdf
Gemma Doyle, Felix Gradinger, Julian Elston (2025). ICIC25 (International Conference on Integrated Care), Lisbon, Portugal  (abstracts for oral presentation on 'Trusted Professional' – led by Gemma and 'Population Health Management' - led by Julian) https://abbey.eventsair.com/AbbeyEventApp/icic25/programme/Agenda/AgendaItemDetail?id=f3ee15f6-d026-422b-bea2-dfc23b09e1a0
Kumbargere, S. N., Quinn, C., Callaghan, L., Paisi, M., & Nasser, M. (2025). Translation of oral health research priorities into research topics in an equity-based priority setting exercise. Health Research Policy and Systems, 23(1), 12. Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-024-01261-0
Green, K., Asthana, S., Ponce-Ponte, O. J., Downey, J., & Watson, J. (2025). Collecting and Sharing Person-Centered AI Clinical Summaries Across Frailty Services Provided by the National Health Service and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise: Protocol for a Co-Design and Feasibility Study. JMIR research protocols, 14, e68511. https://doi.org/10.2196/68511
Green, K., Asthana, S., Downey, J., & Watson, J. (2025). "Mattering" is the foundation of identifying 'What Matters' in patient care. Patient education and counseling, 139, 109224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2025.109224
Green, K., Asthana, S., Ponce-Ponte, O. J., Downey, J., & Watson, J. (2025). Collecting and Sharing Person-Centered AI Clinical Summaries Across Frailty Services Provided by the National Health Service and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise: Protocol for a Co-Design and Feasibility Study. JMIR research protocols, 14, e68511. https://doi.org/10.2196/68511
Asthana S, Green K, Downey J, Lee M, Fox R. Harnessing predictive prevention to shift elderly care from hospital to community in England BMJ 2025; 389 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-082873
Sheaff, R., Ellis Paine, A., Exworthy, M., Gibson, A., Stuart, J., Jochum, V., Allen, P., Clark, J., Mannion, R., & Asthana, S. (2024). Consequences of how third sector organisations are commissioned in the NHS and local authorities in England: a mixed-methods study. Health and social care delivery research, 12(39), 1–180. https://doi.org/10.3310/NTDT7965
Newbury-Birch D, Harbin K, Adamson A et al. Establishing Research Ecosystems in Local Government: Ten lessons from the front line of the first year of the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) [version 1; not peer reviewed]. NIHR Open Res 2024, 4:11 (document) https://doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.1115225.1
Blackwell, I., & Carter Dillon, R. (2025). Supporting men as fathers: the value of a UK community dads’ project during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community, Work & Family, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2025.2575164
Horrell, Jane & Mcloughlin, Alison & Thomas, Felicity & Berzins, Kathryn & Hughes, Susanne & Guppy, Keith & Perkins, Phillip & Corkhill, Ralph & Sherlock, Debbie & Ahmed, Saiqa & Gul, Saima & Holt, Keith & Coombes, Karen & Yameen, Farheen & Wyatt, Katrina & Hamer, Oliver. (2025). Creating a collaborative and impactful research environment: community partner reflections on the DeStress-II study. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7583935/v1
 
 
 

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