ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health

We established the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH) in 2020. Our aim is to generate transformative research evidence to inform strategies to reduce mental distress and ill-health, minimise inequalities, and improve outcomes. The imperative for this has grown since 2020. Multiple co-occurring crises (e.g., Covid-19, cost-of-living, climate extremes) are transforming the UK’s social, economic, and political landscape. There have been sharp increases in insecurity, disadvantage, and threat in many aspects of life and rates of mental distress and ill-health have risen, with far-reaching and unequally distributed socio-economic consequences. The focus of CSMH-2 (2025-2028) is on: extending our research to deepen understandings of social change, inequalities, and mental health; working with partners to translate the evidence into actionable policies and scalable practices; and building capacity. Our objectives are to: 1. Synthesise and extend our research to address knowledge gaps, supported by CSMH resources and by leveraged funding. 2. Expand our partnerships, establishing national and international collaborative networks and opening new pathways to impact. 3. Engage with policy- and decision-makers, via our partners and multiple pathways, to translate our outputs into policy and practice solutions to reduce mental distress and ill-health, minimise inequalities, and improve outcomes. 4. Further embed and develop inclusive partnership working that centres equality, diversity, and inclusion, continuing our transformation of how mental health research is done. 5. Continue to build capacity among a new generation of researchers, equipped with the knowledge and skills to advance understandings of society and mental health and impact policy and practice. We bring together multiple disciplines (e.g., sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, psychology) and stakeholders (e.g., policymakers, community groups, schools). We will expand our three programmes focusing on Younger Generations, Marginalised Communities, and Work and Welfare. In each, we will generate in-depth, place-based knowledge of: (1) why, in the context of recent crises, rates of mental distress and ill-health have increased, inequalities widened, and outcomes worsened in some places and social groups; (2) what processes and mechanisms mediate and modify experiences of mental distress and ill health, connecting, and thriving; and (3) what works, i.e., what policies, community initiatives, and interventions reduce mental distress and ill-health, minimise inequalities, and improve outcomes. Four new hubs will support this work by ensuring our research impacts policies and practices (Communications, Policy, and Impact Hub), is conducted in partnership with people with lived experience (Lived Experience Hub), and capitalises on and contributes to innovations in theory and methods (Theory and Methods Hub) and data infrastructure (Cohorts, Linkages, and Interdisciplinary Data Resources Hub). In our new CSMH Capacity Building and Learning Forum, we will continue to build capacity and provide career progression for Early Career Researchers, community partners, and people with lived experience. By the end of three years, we will have transitioned CSMH to a world-leading research centre, with independent funding streams that support innovative and impactful interdisciplinary research well-beyond the lifetime of this award, and contribute, in the long-term, to demonstrable reductions in mental distress and ill health and inequalities and improved socio-economic outcomes.