Glasgow City Council will embed researchers directly into its decision-making offices to reverse the city's status as the UK's lowest for life expectancy. This matters because improvements in Glasgow's life expectancy have stalled over the past decade, and health inequalities have grown wider. The root causes lie not in healthcare alone but in the wider determinants of health—housing, transport, employment, and urban planning—areas over which the Council has direct control but has historically lacked a systematic way to use research evidence when making policy. If successful, the collaboration will transform how a major UK city government makes decisions. Instead of policies being shaped by political cycles or precedent, each new housing development, transport route, or employment programme would be appraised for its likely health impact before implementation, evaluated during rollout, and modelled for long-term effects. The model targets a permanent cultural shift: a council where asking "what does the evidence say?" becomes standard practice for every department that touches public health.
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Vision: to improve the health of the people of Glasgow by embedding research-practice collaboration across Glasgow City Council, its partners and communities. Background: Glasgow has the lowest life expectancy in the UK. In the past decade improvements in life expectancy have stalled and inequalities have grown wider. The key to improving this lies in addressing the wider determinants of health and inequality. Aims/objectives: to achieve a long-term cultural shift in the Council towards evidence-informed decision-making in all areas of policy and practice that may have an influence on health inequalities and outcomes. In the first five years we will: 1. develop a shared understanding, commitment and vision across the Collaboration for a research-informed prioritisation, design, development and implementation culture. 2. integrate investments in new capacity through placements, relationship building, training and collaborative projects. 3. create a sustainable collaboration, with a pipeline of research-informed innovation in service delivery that positions partners to attract further research and development funding. 4. design, implement, evaluate and refine a research-policy integration model, initially through application in prioritised pilot projects, and subsequently scaled out more widely. 5. improve the quality, discoverability and accessibility of data to collaborators and partners for use in prioritising, appraising and evaluating policy and practice. 6. cultivate a research-led evaluative culture that drives health improvement by strengthening relationships between researchers, decision makers and communities. 7. embed collaborative research capacity and processes within the wider community of stakeholders including elected members, community partners and public representatives. Deliverables: We will use a research-policy integration model supported by substantial engagement across partner organisations and communities to embed a research-led culture within Glasgow City Council decision-making processes. The model has three stages at which research evidence supports decision-making: 1) during policy appraisal to identify policies and actions that might impact on health; 2) during policy implementation to support planning and design of evaluations; 3) through evidence synthesis and modelling of longer-term impacts. Collaborations: The Collaboration brings together Glasgow City Council, University of Glasgow, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, Glasgow Health & Social Care Partnership and Glasgow Centre for Population Health. Timeline: Year 1 will focus on planning, based on substantial stakeholder and community engagement; year 2 will focus on piloting the research-policy integration model in initial priority topics and areas; years 3-4 will focus on wider implementation and embedding of the model; year 5 will focus on continued implementation, review and future planning. Anticipated impact and dissemination: Led from the Council Chief Executive’s Office, the Collaboration will be embedded within Council structures and priorities and well placed to influence policy and decision making processes. Through training, placements, support for data access, collaborative project participation and a developing portfolio of completed projects, the Collaboration will achieve demonstrable impacts on Council policies and actions and a culture change in the use of research to inform action on the wider determinants of health.
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