National Centre for Creative Health

‘Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities’ is a research programme, in partnership with the National Centre for Creative Health, led by University College London’s Culture-Nature-Health Research Group.

Our research projects promote people-powered change, by amplifying lived experience voices. Together, we are exploring how collaborative community, cultural and nature-based activities can improve health inequalities in the UK.

It is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), including Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Medical Research Council (MRC).

The programme is funded across three phases from 2021 to 2027.

Phase One

Projects ran in 2022. This phase funded 12 pilot projects up to £180,000 for 12 months. These projects focus on how to scale up small, local approaches for addressing health inequalities.

Discover more about the Phase One projects >>

Phase Two

Projects began in November 2022. In this phase, 16 consortia-building projects running for nine months were funded up to £250,000 each. These projects will facilitate cross-partner collaboration, incorporating relevant non-academic partners, including community groups and health system organisations.

Discover more about the Phase Two projects >>

Phase Three

Projects funded in this phase were announced in February 2024 and will run for 3 years. This £25 million investment will provide large-scale funding for 12 projects across the UK, building on phases one and two of the Mobilising programme.

The projects seek to tackle entrenched and long standing health inequalities in Britain’s poorest communities by exploring how health systems can collaborate more effectively with communities.

Discover more about the Phase Three projects >>

Current Call-out

Lived Experience in Research Survey

We want to better understand your experiences as lived experience experts in research projects to inform decisions on how to create inclusive and comfortable environments for Lived Experience Experts in research settings.

It involves a 10 minute survey and/or a semi structured interview that would take 45-60 minutes maximum. Take part in whichever you have the time for! We are looking for Lived Experience Experts who have taken part in research projects that involved in-person or online participation in creative activities or in activities based in natural environments (aka creative health).

This research is being conducted by a Masters student at UCL. This dissertation will focus on adults with lived experience in research.

Additional Survey information for those taking part >>

Complete the Survey here >>

Programme Outputs

Learn more about the work of the programme from our latest outputs:

- Mobilising Community Assets: A case study synthesis and review >>

- Working with communities to reduce health inequalities: Interim findings from the UK Research and Innovation Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities Research Programme >>

- International Journal for Equity in Health Article: Thomson, L.J., Waterson, H. & Chatterjee, H.J. (2024) Successes and challenges of partnership working to tackle health inequalities using collaborative approaches to community-based research: mixed methods analysis of focus group evidence. International Journal for Equity in Health, 23:135 >>

ABOUT

Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG)

Equitable Lived Experience inclusion is a central tenet of our community research! More information about our LEAG coming soon!

For information regarding the Programme's Lived Experience Advisory Group contact Lived Experience Producer Kiz Manley on kiz.manley@ucl.ac.uk.

Research Team

Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities Research Team includes: Helen Chatterjee (UCL); Alex Coulter (NCCH); Catherine Gilmore (UCL); Kiz Manley (UCL); Rabya Mughal (UCL); Linda Thomson (UCL); Hannah Waterson (NCCH)

Find out more about the Research Team >>

MORE INFORMATION

Keep up-to-date with the Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities Programme

Sign up to the Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities Programme Newsletter HERE >>

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