Full Blog:

Danny Bradford

The UK Public Health Science (UKPHS) conference returns in April 2026, now held in collaboration with the Society for Social Medicine and Population Health.

To mark this new partnership, we spoke to two researchers about their experiences at previous editions of the conference

From the high quality of the science through to the welcoming social aspects of the conference, they reflect on what makes UKPHS distinctive and why it’s worth being part of.

Danny Bradford

University of Glasgow

PhD candidate 

SSM participation: Presented at the 2023 ASM in Newcastle and 2024 ASM in Glasgow

UKPHS participation: Attended since 2021, organising committee member since 2023, organising committee Chair since 2024

Topics of interest: Health inequalities, health of children with experience of social care

What first brought you to the UKPHS conference, and what keeps you coming back?

Several members of my research unit at the University of Glasgow School of Health and Wellbeing were presenting at the online edition of the conference held in November 2021 and again at the in-person edition in Glasgow in 2022. They encouraged me to come along as a delegate. The broad range of topics that were presented made for a fascinating day with a real spirit of curiosity about the work being presented, rather than strictly critical appraisal. The early career researcher events are always a great way of meeting like-minded people involved with public health research and I’ve made some true friends there.

What makes UKPHS different from other public health or population health meetings you’ve been to?

The plenary sessions, where selected oral presentations are given to all delegates and followed by a panel discussion instead of individual questions to single presenters, are a unique feature of the conference. The oral presentations are curated to provide a really interesting mix of topics and the Q&A has such a light-hearted, positive vibe, with questions coming from a place of real interest. This is in contrast with other conferences where similar topics or methods are bundled together into small parallel sessions and there can be a more critical quality in the Q&A.

This year’s theme is “Research to reality.” How does that resonate with your work or career stage?

I’m getting towards the final stages of my PhD and considering what I’ll do afterwards. Personally, I struggle with how abstract a lot of research can be from the real world. Not only does it lack impact, but it may even be taking resources from areas of public health that could have a meaningful effect on people’s lives. The debate at SSMPH’s conference in September 2024 featuring Jerel Ezell and his work on the health inequalities research industrial complex really touched a nerve! I’m hoping that at UKPHS conference this year I’ll see examples of research that really has improved quality of life for someone, somewhere, and perhaps find some nuggets of advice about how to make sure I’m contributing to projects that do the same.

What would you say to someone wondering whether to submit an abstract or attend for the first time?

Don’t think too much about it: fire your abstract in and get yourself along. The conference welcomes research from any field of public health and is very supportive of early career researchers and researchers from outside of academia. Even if you’re not presenting, it’s a great day (or two if you come to the ECR event and dinner) that’ll hopefully leave you inspired, generate ideas for your own research, and with new friends. If you are presenting,* then the poster session is a supportive and friendly environment in which to present your work. And even if you’re not presenting, you’ll very likely end up chatting with people in ways that can lead to interesting and novel ideas for your future work.

* The UKPHS accepts 80-100 abstracts and only 15 are selected for oral presentation. Most successful abstracts are presented as posters during a chaired poster session.

The call for abstracts is now open and closes on Friday 17 October. Find out more at ukpublichealthscience.org and submit your abstract at https://hg3.co.uk/ukphsc/. We look forward to seeing you in Newcastle!