The University of Cambridge contingent of the Institute of Public Health sits within the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

This Department is one of Europe’s leading academic departments of population health sciences. It was top-ranked in Epidemiology and Public Health among 21 universities in the UK Research Assessment Exercise 2001-2008. The Department has over 300 staff and graduate students, including 8 professors and around a dozen other senior academic staff. Groups in the Department are underpinned by major programme grants, such as those from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer ResearchUK, the UK National Institute of Health Research, the European Union, the US National Institutes of Health, industrial partnerships and several other sources.

The Department’s overall research objective is to generate scientific evidence that will inform the prevention of premature death and disability, the promotion of health, and provide evidence-based health policy. There is a particular focus on common chronic conditions such as common cancers, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis, and metabolic diseases. Key strategies involve establishing large-scale population resources to enable investigation of the separate and combined influences of genetic and lifestyle factors in chronic diseases. The goal is to translate this evidence into the development and evaluation of preventative interventions.

Head of Department: Professor John Danesh Website: www.phpc.cam.ac.uk