Our website has undergone a redesign with the goal of creating a more dynamic platform that showcases SIPHER's exciting research and work - while making it easier for visitors to discover relevant content.

We're at the same web address - www.sipher.ac.uk  though any saved short cuts may need to be updated.

Our improved SIPHER hub offers new sections on our products and policy work, and an area designed to help you navigate through the various formats of our research evidence – from reports, consultations, and publications, to the SIPHER Blog and past editions of this Bulletin. 

Your feedback is welcome as we continue to fine-tune the site to better serve our audiences. So, please take some time to explore and email any comments to sipher@glasgow.ac.uk  

We are pleased to confirm that SIPHER has been granted a six month (uncosted) extension from the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP). This means that our funding end date will now be 15 March 2025.

SIPHER Director, Professor Petra Meier, is to lead one of four initial investments within the newly established Population Health Improvement UK (PHI-UK) network. The aim of PHI-UK is to find innovative and inclusive ways to improve the health of people, places and communities and reduce health inequalities through the development and evaluation of long-lasting and environmentally sustainable interventions.

Commenting on the announcement of this £35 million investment by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Professor Meier noted, “As Director of the Enhancing Policy Modelling theme, I am delighted to be working with a strong coalition of scientists, policymakers, charities, and citizens groups. Together we will be using computer modelling alongside wide-ranging public engagement to highlight the complex interplay between economic policy decisions and the population’s health and inform the development of effective policy solutions."

Read more at: Population Health Improvement UK

SIPHER researcher Andreas Hoehn has successfully secured one of only three awards from the inaugural Research Data Scotland  - Synthetic Data Fund.

‘Linking survey-based full-scale synthetic populations with administrative records: exploring added value for Scotland’s safe havens’ has received over £10k to investigate the untapped potential of high quality synthetic data from our SIPHER Synthetic Population. The aim is to offer a deeper understanding and support for more informed decision-making around health and health inequalities.  

A new comprehensive dataset  with interactive map for Great Britain's local authorities

The SIPHER Inclusive Economy Dataset is revealing the fabric of economic inclusion across Great Britain. SIPHER's Hugh Rice, Andreas Hoehn and Nik Lomax discuss how more inclusive economies correlate with better population health and reduced health inequalities, shedding light on the path to a healthier, more equitable future. New interactive maps, linked to the dataset, allow  exploration of the 13 indicators providing a nuanced understanding of regional economic inclusivity along with the ability to cluster local authorities based on their level of economic inclusion.

All SIPHER blogs>

We are excited to announce that Alison Heppenstall, Andreas Hoehn, and Nik Lomax will be co-editors of a special issue of Geographical Analysis’ “Advancing Spatial Health Inequalities Research”. Help us explore theoretical frameworks, innovative methodologies, and novel data sources for addressing persistent health inequalities. Submit your interdisciplinary contributions by 1st July 2024 to be part of this SIPHER edition. The editors are happy to discuss submission ideas.

Details at  Special Issue - Advancing Spatial Health Inequalities Research: Geographical Analysis

Child Poverty - At the end of January, we held a meeting with two of our policy partners - Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland - to share our modelling work focused on the Scottish Child Poverty targets 

Policy with foresight  - Last November at the FutuRes Policy Lab workshop in Edinburgh, SIPHER researcher  Andreas Hoehn discussed our Synthetic Population and an ongoing collaboration with governmental stakeholders surrounding child poverty in Scotland. This, and the key messages of the workshop, have now been summarises in a policy briefing highlighting the benefits and limits of different anticipatory methods and how they can be used to answer policy challenges.

Read: Policy Brief Policy with Foresight - Preparing for the future in a scientifically rigorous and actionable way. Brief No. 43, Jan 2024, See Building Block 3 for SIPHER's contribution.

Congratulations to Alison Heppenstall  - SIPHER Co-Lead on our Data & System Monitoring and Policy Microsimulation workstrands -  on her exciting new role leveraging AI to enhance both individual and collective decision-making.  She will lead the Smart Cities hub, based at the University of Glasgow to realise the potential of AI applications in various settings including healthcare, pandemics and finance.

Read: UK Scientists to supercharge artificial intelligence in revolutionary £80million national initiative.

SIPHER team members Luke Archer, Alison Heppenstall, Nik Lomax and Kashif Zia presented aspects of our work on the Synthetic Population and dynamic microsimulation at the 9th World Congress of the International Microsimulation Association, Austria 8-10 January 2024 

Nik Lomax SIPHER Co-Investigator and Co-Lead on our Data & System Monitoring and Policy Microsimulation workstrands presented a CECAN Webinar on our Synthetic Population on 28 February 2024. 

Watch: SIPHER Synthetic Population: An Introduction plus Q&A

Learning from our Community Panels - Actively involving the public in data-intensive health research is not yet standard practice. Authored in collaboration with SIPHER Community Panels across Manchester, Scotland, and Sheffield, this article reflects on our joint five-year journey bridging the gap between our work and those with lived experience of health inequalities. Read: Evaluating participant experiences of Community Panels to scrutinise policy modelling for health inequalities: the SIPHER Consortium. Research Involvement and Engagement, January 2024

Quality-adjusted life expectancy across local authorities- QALE - co-authors including SIPHER's Andreas Hoehn, Corinna Elsenbroich, and Petra Meier discovered that Population-weighted QALE estimates across local authorities in Great Britain were lowest in Scotland (females/males: 65.1 years/64.9 years) and Wales (65.0 years/65.2 years), while they were highest in England (67.5 years/67.6 years). Indicators of the inclusive economy accounted for more than half of the variation in QALE at the local authority level. Although more inclusivity was generally associated with higher levels of QALE, this association was not consistent across all 13 inclusive economy indicators. Read: Estimating Quality-Adjusted Life Expectancy (QALE) for Local Authorities in Great Britain and its Association with Indicators of the Inclusive Economy: A Cross-Sectional Study BMJ Open, March 2024.  Additional Reproducibility pack allows for a quick and easy access to QALE estimates.

All SIPHER publications>

Dylan Lewis has joined SIPHER as a part-time Research Assistant until the end of June to support the development of an interactive Synthetic Population dashboard. Once completed, this dashboard will provide researchers and policymakers with a platform to explore and download data from our Synthetic Population without the need to write code. Dylan is a PhD student based in the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow.

We have recently said farewell to two members of our SIPHER Team -  Dan Chedgozy our Embedded Researcher at Sheffield City Council and Fraser Bell our Embedded Researcher at Greater Manchester Combined Authority.  Both made substantial contributions working across all SIPHER workstrands to help shape our understanding of evolving policy priorities within their partner organisations. We extend our heartfelt thanks and best wishes to them as they embark on their new endeavours.

Meet the SIPHER team>