Alcohol and Tobacco Retail Environments (ESRC)

A flagship ESRC-funded study examining how the availability, density and distribution of alcohol and tobacco outlets influence consumption, harm and health inequalities. Using fine-grained spatial data and longitudinal administrative records, the project explores how retail landscapes evolve over time and how planning and licensing policies could reduce inequalities.

SPECTRUM: Shaping Public Health Policies to Reduce Non-Communicable Disease

A large UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) consortium addressing commercial determinants of health, including alcohol, tobacco and other unhealthy commodities. CRESH contributes evidence on spatial inequalities, retail environments and policy impacts. Website: https://spectrum.ed.ac.uk/

Neighbourhood differentials in tobacco pricing across England, Wales and Scotland (CRUK)

A Cancer Research UK funded study used electronic point-of-sale data collected from retailers across the UK to examine how the price of tobacco products varied between different sorts of places, including by deprivation, urbanity and region, and how this changed over time. The work also looked the strategies adopted by retailers in different sorts of places to absorb the impact of changes in tobacco duty.

Optima: 20-Minute Neighbourhoods for Health & Equity (NIHR)

Optima is a major NIHR-funded programme examining how access to everyday services and amenities within a “20-minute neighbourhood” structure shapes health outcomes and inequalities. CRESH researchers lead work on understanding access to services, neighbourhood typologies and linking neighbourhood features to administrative and cohort health data.

Growing Up in Scotland (GUS): Neighbourhoods, Inequalities & Child Health (ESRC)

A new ESRC-funded programme using the Growing Up in Scotland cohort to understand how neighbourhood environments shape child and adolescent outcomes. The study combines survey data, spatial exposure measures and longitudinal follow-up to examine how place contributes to early inequalities.

Lifecourse of Place: how environments throughout life can support healthy ageing (ESRC)

This programme investigates how environmental exposures accumulate across childhood, adulthood and later life, and how these lifecourse patterns intersect with social and economic disadvantage. Using a birth cohort born in Scotland in 1936 (the Lothian Birth Cohort) linked to historical geographical data (green space, pollution, neighbourhood deprivation)  the project examines how place contributes to inequalities in physical, mental and cognitive health in later life  (see our video summarising the key findings).

INHABIT: Inclusive Healthy Accessible Built Environments (UKRI)

 The UKRI-funded INHABIT Hub has been established to tackle some of the complex health-related challenges connected to achieving net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. It particular the Hub is aiming to produce scientific evidence and policy-relevant solutions to realise the health co-benefits of the UK’s net zero transition in housing. The CRESH team are contributing to this work through a cross cutting theme on health equity and ensuring that, alongside environmental benefits, key net zero initiatives achieve gains for health equity.

GroundsWell: Urban Green and Blue Space for Health & Equity

A UKPRP initiative examining how natural environments in cities can support health improvement and reduce inequalities. CRESH researchers lead work on understanding who has no or infrequent contact with urban nature and why, and on how urban green and blue space might reduce health inequalities. https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/groundswell/

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WIAT and WIAT2 (Woods In and Around Towns)

These landmark studies evaluated how improving local woodlands and green spaces affects population health and wellbeing. WIAT and WIAT2 remain influential examples of environmental intervention research and continue to shape practice in urban forestry and public health.

SCADR: Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research

CRESH researchers contribute to SCADR by advancing the safe use of linked administrative data to address population health questions. Our work focuses on spatial applications, inequalities and methodological advances in environmental exposure measurement. 

Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) Research Programme

CRESH has a long-standing track record of using the SLS to explore lifecourse inequalities, environmental exposures, multimorbidity, migration and neighbourhood change. Analyses include alcohol/tobacco retail environments, green space exposure, vitamin D-related environmental factors and the impacts of residential mobility on health.

SPACES Study

The MRC-funded Places & Health programme at the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, led by and including CRESH researchers, generated important resources that we continue to use. Most notably, it created the SPACES datasets, which used GPS, accelerometry and mapping tools to understand children’s real-world activity spaces and their environmental contexts. The SPACES data continue to inform our work on mobility, exposure assessment and environmental inequalities