Upcoming events
2025
The PHSI Webinar series
We have almost come to the end of our 2025 PHSI webinar series, which has proven to be very popular and has sparked lots of interesting discussions. The talks are all held online from 12:15-12:45 and continue the 2024 Annual Symposium theme of “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Population Health: Bridging the Gaps for a Healthier Future.”
We have been fortunate to welcome a number of excellent speakers from across the university, to discuss their research on population health from a range of different perspectives. The final webinar in the series is listed below, please save the date where possible, we hope you can join us. Details of the seminars which have already taken place, including recordings for those who consented can be found in the “previous events” section below.
May
6th May 2025 – 12:15-12:45
Prof. Andrew Dowsey – Chair in Population Health Data Science
Title: Developing AI to realise a continuously monitored longitudinal cohort of cattle at Bristol Vet School’s John Oldacre Centre for Dairy Welfare & Sustainability Research.
Abstract: Artificial intelligence with cameras and wearables has unlocked numerous applications in Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), facilitating farmers in timely management of production, health and welfare. Here we demonstrate its expansion to extensive longitudinal coverage of a whole dairy herd to underpin next-generation research in animal behaviour, health, welfare, infection dynamics and sustainability.
Bio: Prof Andrew Dowsey is Chair of One Health Data Science jointly at Bristol Veterinary School (BVS) and the Department of Population Health Sciences, Impact Director for BVS and Artificial Intelligence Lead for the John Oldacre Centre for Dairy Welfare & Sustainability Research. His research focusses on clinical diagnostics, prediction models and monitoring platforms across human and animal health, with diverse applications including infections and antimicrobial resistance.
Join the Zoom Meeting here
Meeting ID: 943 9599 1115
Passcode: 935371
Previous events
2024
April
30th April 2025 – 12:15-12:45
Prof. Sheelagh McGuinness, Professor of Law
Title: Medico-Legal Challenges in Provision of Abortion at Later Gestations in Great Britain
Abstract: Abortions that take place later in pregnancy are a constant point of controversy in policy and law reform debates. Efforts to alter abortion time limits accordingly feature amongst the most challenging questions in this area. This paper consider the merits of key positions within the debates on such time limits. It is argued that we should be concerned about provision of care in this context but not for the reasons that often dominant the law reform advocacy space. The paper considers the context for provision of care with a focus on Great Britain; primarily England and Wales. A number of specific areas of legal ambiguity are identified, including the possibility of live birth following termination, the role for coronial involvement, safeguarding, travel to access care in other jurisdictions, and denial of care. The overall argument is that there are shortcomings in the current legal framework and gaps in provision of care and this is something we should be mindful of in efforts to reform the law.
March
26th March 2025 – 12:15-12:45
Prof. Julian Higgins – Professor of Evidence Synthesis
Title: Interventions to prevent childhood obesity: an evidence synthesis
Abstract: Julian will overview a recently completed NIHR-funded evidence synthesis of over 200 randomized trials of interventions aiming to prevent obesity in children and young people. The project involved the development of a novel analytic framework, used to code key features of the interventions and populations studied, which was co-developed with stakeholders including children/young people, schoolteachers and public health professionals. The main synthesis sought to determine which of these features, and combinations of features, were associated with the largest effects. We also examined the extent to which intervention effects differed according to baseline characteristics associated with inequities (e.g. ethnicity, socioeconomic status) by collecting subgrouped data from 81 of the trials via a collaboration with the trialists.
Bio: Julian Higgins is Professor of Evidence Synthesis in the newly renamed Bristol Evidence Synthesis, Appraisal and Modelling (BEAM) Centre based in Population Health Sciences at Bristol Medical School. His research has mainly been in the methodology of systematic review and meta-analysis and he has been senior editor of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions since 2003. He is an NIHR Senior Investigator and currently co-directs the NIHR Bristol Evidence Synthesis Group.
View the Zoom recording of this talk here.
18th March 2025 – 12:15-12:45
Dr Ettie Unwin – Lecturer in Statistical Science
Semi-mechanistic disease transmission models
Bio: Ettie is a Lecturer in Statistical Science in the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol. She is interested in developing and applying novel methods for infectious disease outbreak analysis to help inform policy makers in real time. Ettie’s current research focuses on developing spatial temporal renewal based transmission models alongside estimating the number of children affected by COVID-19 and crises. Ettie is an active member of the Machine Learning and Global Health Network, which is a network of academics across the UK, Denmark, Germany and Singapore doing applied and methodological research in the field of Global Health.
Abstract: In this presentation Ettie will share her experience of using two different infectious semi-mechanistic models (Hawkes Processes and Renewal models) to inform malaria and COVID-19 policy. These type of models enable you can encode the shape of an infection mechanism but there is flexibility to easily infer the parameters from data with relatively inexpensive inference methods such as Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inference.
View the Zoom recording of this talk here.
12th March 2025 (Rescheduled date) – 12:15-12:45
Dr Eimear Foley – Senior Research Associate Immunopsychiatry
Understanding the role of inflammation in depression & cognitive function.
Bio: Éimear is a Senior Research Associate in Immunopsychiatry at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses primarily on the role of inflammation in major psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and schizophrenia. During her PhD, Éimear made use of epidemiological and experimental medicine approaches to further our understanding of the role of inflammation in depression and associated cognitive dysfunction. Her post-doctoral research expands on this work by using genetic approaches to address key outstanding questions in immunopsychiatry. Éimear also works as a coordinator for The Mental Elf, an online science communication platform where she is the lead editor of blogs on biological, genetic, and molecular psychiatry.
Socials: @eimearfoley.bsky.social (bluesky); @eimear_foley1 (X)
6th March 2025 – 10.00-11.00
Jeremy Horwood, Joanna Kesten, Ava Lorenc and Mairead Murphy
Collaborative, responsive qualitative research: The CLIP-Q approach
This free webinar will be showcasing the CLIP-Q ‘collaborative and intensive pragmatic qualitative’ research approach that the NIHR ARC West Behavioural and Qualitative Science Team used during the covid-19 pandemic to produce responsive findings, and it’s become a mainstay of how they do team-based qualitative research. The CLIP-Q approach aims to produce findings that are not only responsive, but also rigorous and relevant.
Find out more and reserve your free place – here
February
25th February 2025 – 12:15-12:45
Prof. John Coggon – Chair in Law
Seven Sorts of Reasons to Support the Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024’s (Apparently) Strange Approach to Age Limits
Abstract: As has been widely publicised, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill includes provisions to make an offence of selling tobacco products, herbal smoking products, and cigarette papers to persons born on or after 1st January 2009, and the buying of such products for such persons. These provisions have invited critical scepticism even amongst commentators who are broadly supportive of smoke free agendas, with challenges based both on practical and principled grounds. In this talk, I spell out seven sorts of reasons that suggest that the distinctive approach to age limits in the Bill is less problematic than such scepticism suggests.
Bio: John is Professor of Law in the Centre for Health, Law, and Society, at the University of Bristol Law School. His research combines legal analysis with approaches from moral and political theory; especially in the contexts of mental capacity law and within the philosophy of public health. He is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and the ethics committees of the BMJ and the UK Faculty of Public Health.
January
28th January 2025 – 12:15-12:45
Prof. Russ Jago – Professor of Physical Activity & Public Health
Developing new ways to increase children’s physical activity at school: The design and early findings from the Passport Study
Abstract: In this presentation Russ Jago will provide a rationale for why we need to promote physical activity in primary schools. He will then outline the steps that the Passport team are undertaking to co-design a context specific intervention physical activity intervention and their future evaluation plans
2024
July
The PHSI Annual Symposium was held on Monday 1st July in the Humanities Complex, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1TB 9:00-5:45.
The theme of the event this year was: “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Population Health: Bridging the Gaps for a Healthier Future.”
Further details about the speakers can be found here.
Audio recordings of the event with accompanying slides can be found here.
The programme for the event can be found here.
February
“Her name was Sita” – Film screening and panel event – M Shed – 28th February 2024
*Warning: This article discusses suicidal behaviour. If you have questions on self-harm or feel suicidal, use this link to find an international helpline.*
The PHSI were delighted to support a public screening of ‘Her Name Was Sita’ – a short documentary exploring womanhood, virtue, shame, and suicide in Nepal. In Nepal, suicide is the single leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. It is a serious but neglected public health problem. ‘Her Name Was Sita’ explores the concept of a virtuous woman and how shame and honour can lead to self-harm and suicide in Nepal.
The event, held at the M Shed in Bristol, showcased the film created by film maker Heshani Sothiraj Eddleston, as part of a collaboration between the University of Bristol Suicide and Self Harm group (SASH) and the University of Edinburgh Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention (CPSP). The film was followed by a panel discussion, which provided opportunity for a thought provoking conversation around the project and wider issues. The screening was well attended with 60 audience members from a variety of sectors including academia, charity, health, and the general public.
The trailer for the film can be found here, and more information is available on the CPSP website. To learn more about the University of Bristol SASH group, please visit their webpage.
January
PHSI Climate change sandpit success
The first of our SRIF funded PHSI Sandpit events was held in January on the topic of climate change and global health.
The meeting, chaired by Prof. Ellen Brooks-Pollock (PHSI Director), was attended by multidisciplinary colleagues from the University of Bristol. The aim was to bring together researchers with similar interests but different skills to discuss the topic of climate change with a view to applying for funding. The event was very successful and discussion continued in the weeks following the meeting culminating in the submission of an application to a UKRI funding call. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the sandpit.
If you have a grant you would like to apply for and would like help convening a team of experts to support the application, please get in touch (gemma.crawford@bristol.ac.uk).
2023
July
The PHSI were very glad to support The Bristol Cancer Research Network’s Early Career Researchers’ symposium 2023 which took place 28 June in the Life Sciences Building.
Over 90 people registered to take part in this live event organised by the Bristol Cancer Research Network, which is supported by the University of Bristol’s Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research. The programme offered a series of oral and poster presentations from Early Career Researchers based on an abstract submission process, and comprised 8 oral and 16 poster presentations delivered by up and coming research stars. The event also included talks from two keynote speakers.
Find out more about the event here.
April
The PHSI provided funding to support the first in-person event for the Bristol Immuno-Epidemiology group this month.
The university of Bristol immuno-epidemiology group formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Members range from masters students up to professors and come from Population Health Sciences, Engineering Mathematics, Bristol Veterinary School and Cellular and Molecular Medicine. To date the group had met only online and focus has mostly stayed on COVID-19.
In 2023 they planned their first in-person meeting to: –
- Build on early collaborations and define future research activities in this exciting area.
- Enhance the role of ECRs in gaining skills in leadership by co-leading group meetings.
- Facilitate communication between researchers of different backgrounds to tackle research questions that sit across immunology and epidemiology.
- Address barriers to ongoing collaboration.
- Identify suitable funding calls and opportunities for co-authoring immuno-epi research papers.
A guest speaker from the Office for National Statistics (lead of the COVID-19 Community Infection Survey) was also invited to share her work and stimulate discussions.
February
The PHSI were pleased to support the 2023 Infection and Immunity ECR annual symposium
The event offered students, postgraduates, technicians, fellows and others in the first stages of building an independent research career an opportunity to share and discuss their work with a wider audience. Over 100 people registered to take part in this in-person afternoon event organised by the University of Bristol’s Infection and Immunity Research Network, which is supported by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research. The event allowed Early Career Researchers (ECRs) the opportunity to write and submit an abstract, go through a competitive peer review process, and deliver a presentation to an audience of students and staff from across the University, both Bristol NHS Trusts, and beyond.
More information about this event & the PHSI’s contribution can be found here.
Photo credit: Catherine Brown
Mendel at 200 webinar series
Following on from the success of the MRC IEU two-day conference celebrating 200th anniversary of Mendel’s birth, there was a series of webinars throughout the year. Details of the webinars can be found on the MRC IEU website.
- Mendel and the Veil of Ignorance – Professor Samir Okasha, University of Bristol.
- Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology – Professor Greg Radick, University of Leeds
- Looking at the evolution of synonymous mutations and why they affect fitness – Professor Laurence Hurst, University of Bath
- Metastable epi-alleles – Professor Anne Ferguson Smith, University of Cambridge
2022
November
PHSI Annual symposium: Climate Change and Global Health
This in-person event included a selection of exciting talks from members of the PHSI community and concluded with a public lecture from Professor Petra Meier.
Watch the event here.
September
9th September – Dr Michael Fletcher – Life at Nature Genetics: what we do, how scientific publishing works, and how I got here.
Dr Michael Fletcher from Nature genetics joined us in Oakfield House to offer insight into topics that the journal is currently interested in, the process of publishing a paper with Nature Genetics (submission, peer review, etc.), plus details about an editorial career and how he got into it.
29th September – Professor David Hunter – Our Future Health – Zoom Webinar
Professor Hunter is the Chief Science Advisor to Our Future Health a major new national initiative in the UK that aims to return genomic information to consenting participants. Professor Hunter discussed this exciting project during this one hour webinar event.
July
20th – 21st July
Mendel at 200 – MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit
Two centuries ago, on 20 July 1822, Gregor Johann Mendel was born, a friar who became known as the founder of genetics. Mendel’s experiments with pea plants paved the way for much of the research that we do in the Integrative Epidemiology Unit. To mark his 200th birthday, the MRC IEU hosted a two-day conference/event, at Bristol Zoo Gardens and online, on 20-21 July 2022.
Speakers at the conference spanned epidemiology, agriculture and the history of genetics, and also considered the impact of eugenics and other ethical issues.
2021
17th September – Community: Scientists for Open Science
The University of Bristol is an institutional member of UKRN, and has a local network led by Hugo Pedder. This video gives an overview of UKRN’s origin story and activities. If you’d like to be involved, get in touch!
6th to 7th July 5th Annual Mendelian Randomization Conference
Mendelian Randomization: Harnessing the power of population diversity and family relatedness, read full details with programme and list of speakers
2020
20 November – Covid-19 Known Unknowns Webinar
16 November Annual Symposium: Patients, Populations, and the Public in Research
This online event included a selection of exciting talks from members of the PHSI community and concluded with a public lecture from Professor James Wilson, a philosopher and ethicist from UCL. Professor Wilson’s research integrates philosophy with other relevant disciplines, such as epidemiology, economics, and political theory, to explore conceptual and practical challenges in the sustainable and equitable improvement of human wellbeing. His research has particular focus on public health ethics, and the ownership and governance of ideas and information.
Zoom video recordings of annual symposium:
2019
17-19 July 4th Annual Mendelian Randomisation Conference This meeting focussed on the development, application and translation of Mendelian randomization methods to a range of fields. This will be relevant to all with an interest in causality, including from social science, clinical science, public health, biomedical research, epidemiology, statistics and the pharmaceutical industry. An interactive event for all to contribute to discussion on new methodologies and wide scale implementation.
2018
June 13-15th Guest speaker at a Conference on Epidemiological Birth Cohort and Longitudinal Studies, Oulu, Finland, read the full details
June
Bristol Population Health Science Institute Annual Symposium
The Bristol Population Health Sciences Institute (PHSI) hosted a one-day event on Monday 26th February 2018 for all PhD students with research interests in any area of Population Health from across the University of Bristol and the GW4 BioMed Doctoral Training Partnership . Population Health was interpreted very broadly to include any research which may ultimately have an impact on human health, from basic science, translational, social science to classic epidemiology.
The event, was held at The Watershed in central Bristol, and involved networking activities, a keynote address and workshop on research reproducibility led by Professor Marcus Munafò (School of Experiment Psychology), presentations and posters from PhD students, and a session on career development.
2017
10 October – Epigenetics in Clinical and Translational Research, read the full details
20-22 September – Guest speaker at the 16th CRG Symposium: 7th International Workshop on Genomic Epidemiology, read the full details