Professors Susan Carr and Monique Lhussier share the role of associate directors of Fuse for Northumbria. Northumbria has been a key part of Fuse since its inception in 2008, with 65 Northumbria colleagues being part of the centre. Fuse is a founding member of the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR). Established in April 2012 with funding of £20m, the SPHR was a partnership between eight leading academic centres with excellence in applied public health research in England.
Fuse have been successful in the renewal of its membership of the NIHR School of Public Health Research from April 2017, and again in 2022. Retaining membership is strategically important to public health research in the North East. Partly based on our success with building research capacity in the North East through Fuse, we were successful in securing funding for the North East North Cumbria Applied Research Collaboration in 2019. Northumbria takes a senior leadership role within the ARC, as Professor Monique Lhussier is deputy lead of the theme of Health Inequalities and Marginalised Communities; Professor Tim Rapley is deputy lead of the theme of Enabling Methodologies, and Professor Tracy Finch (from Nursing Midwifery and Health) leads the theme of Knowledge Mobilisation.
The Fuse Public Involvement and Engagement Committee (PIEC) was re-established in June 2020 and is led by Fuse Associate Director Prof Susan Carr. It has been a significant development in the strategic direction, oversight and operation of Public Involvement and Engagement (PIE) in Fuse. Prof Carr has overall leadership for Fuse’s public involvement and engagement strategy. The PIEC is diverse, including researchers at all career stages from across Fuse – the Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) Manager from NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East & North Cumbria (ARC-NENC); and a local third sector organisation (Fulfilling Lives) specialising in co-production approaches involving marginalised populations. This work links to the departments wider commitment to the involvement of Experts by Experience in all that we undertake.
