Nihr Phirst

Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams (PHIRST) are funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Our remit is to work with local government organisations across the UK to co-produce timely and accessible evaluations of existing and planned public health schemes. All aspects of the evaluation are funded by the NIHR but the intervention itself must have its own funding. Each project has its own research design and we always look for opportunities to co-produce research with people who use or deliver services and with other local stakeholders. This approach aims to help build local capacity in research and evaluation, potentially leaving a longer-term legacy from the evaluations we undertake. We are actively working to mobilise the knowledge arising from each of our evaluations. This involves working with local, regional and national stakeholders to understand who the users of the research will be, what they will need from the evaluation and how best we might engage them. We are particularly interested in population level, non-clinical, transdisciplinary interventions that impact upon the health of the public and inequalities in health. Follow us on Bluesky @nihr-phirst.bsky.social, X @NIHR_PHIRST and watch PHIRST content on YouTube https://tinyurl.com/phirstyoutube