Health and Wellbeing

Health and wellbeing outcomes are best improved through a multi-faceted approach that takes account of the systems and communities in which those outcomes arise.

Efforts to improve such outcomes that operate only at the individual level, but do not take account of systems and communities, often fail, or work only for more advantaged groups, increasing health inequalities. Further, many of the most effective interventions to improve health and wellbeing outcomes are community-wide, whole population or ‘system-wide’ approaches such as changes in policy, regulation or law.

For example, systems-based approaches to increasing physical activity must consider the influence of national and local policies and regulations, supportive environments, accessibility of programmes regardless of life stage or ability, financial sustainability of activities, and partnerships across sectors and with different communities. Accordingly, studentship projects funded within this new cluster of systems-informed and community-based approaches to improving health and wellbeing, will be diverse and innovative in topic and design. This fits with the university research strategy under the Lives theme.

Health and Wellbeing cluster aims:

• To train interdisciplinary PhD students in systems-informed and/or community-based approaches to improving health and wellbeing.
• To create a sustainable and productive partnerships between Stirling researchers involved in the cluster, that successfully leverage external funding for linked projects.