Recipient organisationUniversity of NottinghamSource-published name: The University of Nottingham
Funding£1.5M
PeriodDec 2023 — Nov 2028
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Local public health teams across the UK will use storyboarding, forum theatre, and Lego to turn research evidence into real-world action. The KNOW-PH programme addresses a persistent gap: high-quality public health research often sits in academic journals rather than shaping how councils, community groups, and health services actually operate. The team will work directly with local authorities and community panels, using creative, co-produced methods to make evidence usable and timely. If successful, this approach could shift how local governments routinely use research to tackle health inequalities—not through top-down mandates, but by embedding knowledge mobilisation into everyday decision-making. The programme will produce training materials and guidelines so other areas can adopt similar methods. Because the work is designed to be responsive to emerging policy windows—such as moments of public debate—it aims to capture attention when it matters most. The project does not test a specific intervention; instead, it builds a new infrastructure for how evidence and practice connect.
View original technical description
OUR APPROACH: The aim of KNOW-PH (Knowledge for Public Health) is to develop, design and deliver knowledge mobilisation in local settings for the benefit of public health and to reduce health inequalities. We will do this using non-linear, ‘Mode 2’ models of knowledge mobilisation that are: i) driven by coproduction; ii) responsive to policy and practice need; iii) learning and action oriented; and, iv) evidence and theory informed. Our approach is creative by design, engaging with policymakers, practitioners and communities across the local public health landscape in the UK. THE PROGRAMME: There are two interrelated components with local government and community partnership at its core: 1) Deep coproduction. This component will mobilise knowledge, organised over two cycles of coproduction (16 months each) using creative methods with local authorities and their partners. 2) Responsive knowledge mobilisation. This will include shorter term knowledge mobilisation projects (3-6 months long), focused on NIHR and stakeholder needs where a ‘window of opportunity’ emerges to address timely, high priority topics for local areas. An iterative process for developing topic focus, synthesising evidence form the NIHR portfolio and coproduction activities will be applied and tailored to the specific needs of local partners. This will be achieved in close collaboration with the NIHR PHR programme team and with two main pillars of KNOW-PH: the Local Authority Reference Group and the Public and Community and Engagement panel. Our inputs and outputs will be distinctively creative using methods such as storyboarding, forum theatre, Lego serious play, arts-based methods and many other creative forms. Our work will be evaluated pragmatically and continuously for impact, capacity-building and cross-sectoral learning. We will produce multiple outputs including project-specific knowledge products, training materials, guidelines for knowledge mobilisation and how to use creative methods with local government. EXPERTISE AND TRACK RECORD: We are an experienced, multidisciplinary team with expertise across public health research, policy and practice as well as knowledge mobilisation, science communication, public engagement and creative design. We have a track record of mobilising knowledge across the public health landscape, including in local government and have pioneered design-led methods. PATHWAYS TO IMPACT: Our coproduction methods offer a promising route to social, policy, practice and behaviour change. Our projects will mobilise knowledge at receptive moments (e.g. when there is engaged public debate) to capture individual, organisational and system interests at the right time. We will build a social media strategy and extend our community of practice work (e.g. the Knowledge Mobilisation Alliance) to deliver longer term goals. Our pathway promotes longer term embedded practice that will create a shift in ways of doing evidence mobilisation, with potentially long-term implications for health inequalities. PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT: Our Public and Community Engagement (PACE) group is at the centre of the work of KNOW-PH. Each project will have a small, bespoke Public Involvement and Engagement team advising. With diverse community organisation leadership, PACE will shape the priorities of the team and support timely and meaningful public involvement across the knowledge mobilisation processes ensuring that community interests are properly represented.
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