Departmental Research

The Department is a leading centre for epidemiology, health services and public health research.In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, our Epidemiology and Public Health research was ranked 4th in the UK and our Health Services Research was ranked 3rd, with over 80% of our research ranked as world leading or internationally excellent.

MRC CAiTE centre's research strategy

The Department hosts the MRC CAiTE (Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology) Centre and ALSPAC (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), one of the UK’s premier birth cohort studies. We are one of three lead centres in the UKCRC’s DECIPHer (Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement) Centre. We run a series of  randomised trials through the UKCRC/NCRI-accredited trials unit the BRTC (Bristol Randomised Trials Collaboration), hosted jointly with Primary Care, and host the MRC ConDuCT (COllaboration and iNnovation in DifficUlt and complex randomised Controlled Trials) methodology hub.  The Department’s flagship trial is the NIHR HTA Programme-funded ProtecT (Prostate testing for Cancer and Treatment) study- now the world’s largest evaluation of prostate cancer treatments. 

We have created an environment that values and uses the contributions of geneticists, biologists, social scientists, economists and anthropologists as well as epidemiologists, statisticians, public health specialists and clinicians, resulting in some unique approaches to tackling research questions.

Academics within the Department  lead specific programmes of genetic epidemiology, methodological (such as systematic reviews and meta-analysis, instrumental variables, missing data) and disease-specific (primarily cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, suicide, HIV/AIDS, pharmacoepidemiology, neurdegenerative disorders, other infectious diseases, substance misuse) research.

We have extensive collaborations with clinical and other departments in the University of Bristol and are at the core of Bristol University’s Population Health research theme. The Department has strong collaborations throughout the UK and internationally. Unlike many departments in our field, we do not form rigid divisions between epidemiology, public health and health services research as our studies often include elements of all these issues.