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The first year of partnership between the Society for Social Medicine & Population Health and the UK & Ireland Public Health Science conference brought over 250 members of the public health community together in Newcastle upon Tyne. Attendees came from a wide variety of organisations, with a strong presence from public health practitioners in the NHS and local authorities, as well as colleagues from universities and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

This year’s theme was Research to reality: Implementing public health science in practice and policy. Three keynote talks were delivered by senior public health leaders and researchers on the importance and challenges of implementing public health research. Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health at Gateshead and Newcastle Councils, spoke on the role of local public health leadership and evidence-informed decision-making. Clare Bambra, Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University, presented work on reducing health inequalities and the politics of action. Nason Maani, Associate Professor in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh, discussed commercial determinants of health inequality and moving from evidence to action.

The UK & Ireland Public Health Science conference has a distinctive format, curating a selection of only 15 abstracts for oral presentation. Selected from the highest-scoring abstracts, this year’s presentations covered a diverse range of topics. These ranged from ethnographic studies of coastal communities and dementia care in South Asian families, to frontline public health issues around influenza vaccination in children, food insecurity during pregnancy, local authority public health careers, and the use of natural language processing to understand inequalities in healthcare communication.

The chaired poster sessions were once again a highlight of the event for many delegates. Poster themes ranged across the breadth of public health and included, for example, Food Insecurity, Infection, Disease and Vaccination, as well as Communities and Inequality, with a similarly diverse range of research methods within each theme. These sessions gave presenters a chance to present their work before discussing it with other presenters and attendees.

>Prior to the main conference, a half-day event for early career researchers focused on the value of patient and public involvement and engagement, co-production, and funding applications. The sessions, led by Will McGovern, Adam Todd, Masuma Mishu and Kate Hawley, had a practical focus on meaningful involvement and what funding panels look for. The event also allowed early career public health professionals and researchers to meet colleagues from across the UK and beyond, and to develop networks that will strengthen the public health community in future.

The conference organisers would also like to thank SSMPH for sponsoring prizes for the best work presented by NHS and/or local authority colleagues. Thanks also to the other supporters of the event, including the NIHR School for Public Health Research, NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration Newcastle, Fuse, the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration, Newcastle University, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, and Hg3.

The next edition of the conference will be held in spring 2027 in Glasgow. A call for abstracts will be published in summer 2026. Further information can be found on the conference website at ukpublichealthscience.org.