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Health at Durham

Unbound from clinic, we frame health differently. Our vision for health is for people to thrive in the places they live. We embrace physical, mental, social and environmental health, envisioned as a synergy of self, beliefs, culture, family, community and planet.
44 Specialist
Institutes, Centres, Academies and Projects
40 Courses
Undergraduate Courses and Postgraduate Programmes
£20 Million
in Research Funding
Community Garden

Welcome to Health at Durham

Health at Durham is a university-wide strategic programme of world-leading research, education, engagement and impact. Our rich and diverse expertise takes place across three interrelated ways of framing health.
About Us
A family running in a field

Our three health frames

Discover more about what is taking place across our interrelated frames of health.

  • Individuals and Health

    For this framing, health is about the physicality, behaviour and wellness of the embodied self.
    Individuals and Health

  • Communities, Places and Health

    For this framing, health is about the communities and places in which people live, including the complex systems of which they are a part.
    Communities

  • Environments, Ecology and Health

    For this framing, health is about sustainability, planetary health and the multiple environments in which humans live, from microbiology to ecology.
    Environment

Individuals and Health

For this framing, health is about the physicality, behaviour and wellness of the embodied self.
Individuals and Health

Communities, Places and Health

For this framing, health is about the communities and places in which people live, including the complex systems of which they are a part.
Communities

Environments, Ecology and Health

For this framing, health is about sustainability, planetary health and the multiple environments in which humans live, from microbiology to ecology.
Environment
Our Courses
University student
Our mission is to encourage and support high calibre interdisciplinary research to understand and address human health challenges.
Professor Charlotte Clarke
Executive Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Health

Research Excellence Framework (REF)

90 percent of our research, including health, rated 'world-leading' or ‘internationally excellent.'

The depth and breadth of our university research was demonstrated by more than 1,000 research staff, whose research was submitted in 24 different subject areas, including a wide range of health topics, from infectious disease and the neuroscience of pain to health inequalities and global health to nutrition and sustainable farming to the medical humanities and medical ethics. Full results can be found on the REF 2021 website. See also our health impact case studies below.
REF 2021 website (external link)
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90% world-leading or internationally excellent research.
88% world-leading or internationally excellent outputs.
90% world-leading or internationally excellent research impact.
97% world-leading or internationally excellent research environment.

 

 

Health impact case studies

From improving people's health and influencing changes in the law, our research is having an impact around the world.

Supporting voice-hearers and changing perceptions

Our Hearing the Voice project – drawn from research from across the University - is providing resources to help voice-hearers and their families.
Laptop displaying hearing the voice website with cathedral background underlay

Pioneering research into infant sleep safety

Our Anthropologists have revolutionised research into infant sleep safety and helped reduce rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Parents lying next to babies in bed with durham underlay

 

 

What's new?

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New interdisciplinary health research awarded £9m grant

Our cutting-edge Institute for Medical Humanities (IMH) has been awarded a £9m Discovery Research Platform Award to develop a new Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH).

Global research
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A poem for our Critical Care Garden, South Tees NHS Foundation Hospital

This wonderful plaque was installed last week, with a poem by ICU Steps member Diane Bousfield. Many thanks to Diane, the plaque artist Dr Laura Johnston and the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing for funding this warm welcome to the garden, currently well used by patients, carers and staff.
Research news
ICU Poem

Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing Doctoral Training Programme 2022/23: Call for expressions of interest

The Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing are currently inviting expressions of interest from doctoral students to join our doctoral training programme in 2022/2023.
Durham news
Group working at table

The Black Health and the Humanities Network moves to IMH

The Black Health and the Humanities Network is now hosted by the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University.
Research news

New Centre with University of Johannesburg

A new Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health (CPEMPH) has been launched by Professor Alex Broadbent, Professor of Philosophy of Science and a member of the Institute for Medical Humanities.
Global research
A market street in Kenya with various traders and pedestrians

Live Well with Pain: 10 footsteps programme accredited by the Personalised Care Institute (PCI)

The 10 Footsteps programme is a 10 hour online training programme for health and social care professionals, delivered by professional and lived experience trainers. The 10 Footsteps training was developed in conjunction with Dr Paul Chazot FBPhS, Durham University’s Wolfson Institute of Health and Wellbeing Pain Challenge Academy, funded by the ESRC (UK). The aim is to enable participants to support people with persistent pain, to develop their confidence and skills in self-management.
Research news
Illustration of human back pain

Mitigating the impact of air pollution on dementia and brain health: Setting the policy agenda

Professor Brian Castellani from our Department of Sociology is the Director of InSPIRE, a research consortium focused on the links between air pollution and brain health. Here, together with InSPIRE colleagues Dr Suzanne Bartington (Birmingham University) and Professor Stefan Reis (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), Brian discusses why air quality strategies should include benefits on brain health.
Research news
Image showing people crossing a busy city street
Discover More News

Physical Activity Inequalities - Collaboration through Research, Policy and Practice

The Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences recently collaborated with practitioners, policy makers and researchers at their event ‘Addressing physical activity inequalities through research-policy-practice collaboration’, co-hosted with Country Durham Sport.

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A poem for our Critical Care Garden, South Tees NHS Foundation Hospital

This wonderful plaque was installed last week, with a poem by ICU Steps member Diane Bousfield. Many thanks to Diane, the plaque artist Dr Laura Johnston and the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing for funding this warm welcome to the garden, currently well used by patients, carers and staff.
ICU Poem

The Black Health and the Humanities Network moves to IMH

The Black Health and the Humanities Network is now hosted by the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University.

Get in touch

Contact our team:

  • Undergraduate and postgraduate student enquiries
  • General enquiries

    • Contact us

    Health at Durham,
    Palatine Centre,
    Durham DH1 3LE

    Tel: +44 (0)191 334 4042