Cross-disciplinary research
Find out about UCL’s health research, and how we are supporting the development of new research communities and collaborations.
Academic Communities
Our Academic Communities act as a catalyst to increase UCL’s cross-disciplinary public health research capacity and involve disciplines that would not usually be considered to be within the public health field. This encourages innovative perspectives in research and education to ensure a healthy future for all.
Climate Change and Health
Our Climate Change and Health Community brings together researchers from across UCL whose work focuses on understanding the links between climate change and human health.
Creative Health
Our Creative Health Community brings together researchers from across UCL whose work focuses on health creation and understanding creative approaches to reducing health disparities.
Health Equity
Our Health Equity Community brings together researchers from across UCL whose work focuses on designing interventions, and informing policy to address health inequity, ensuring healthy lives for all.
Urban Health
Bringing together researchers from across UCL whose work focuses on understanding the impacts of the urban environment on human health, and how best to reduce health inequalities in urban areas.
Cross-disciplinary research at UCL
UCL researchers are tackling public health challenges through cross-disciplinary research, whole system and lifecourse approaches, bringing together insights on addressing the broad determinants of health.
From the built environment and planetary health, to innovations such as AI and digital diagnostics, our work generates evidence on how the places we live, study, and work - and the systems that shape these environments - influence our health and wellbeing, and what we can do to improve health and reduce inequalities.
Here are some examples of the initiatives we are leading.
Child and Adolescent Health Impacts of Learning Indoor
CHILI aims to ensure the indoor environment at schools and nurseries can support children’s health and education, whilst being environmentally sustainable.
UCL Anthropocene
UCL Anthropocene brings together people, projects, courses and events from across disciplines to explore and address the challenges of the Anthropocene.
People and Nature Lab
This UCL East Living Lab unites ecology, health, engineering, computer science, social science, and the built environment to tackle biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, and climate change.
International Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Creative Global Health Research
This project aims to build significant international partnerships to reflect on current global health research practices and co-design a creative health research methods course to pilot in Nepal.
WHO Collaborating Centre for Digital Public Health and Pandemic Preparedness
The centre works with the World Health Organisation to scale digital approaches for surveillance, strengthen data stewardship and support capacity building across the European region and beyond.
Advancing Prevention Research in Cancer through Ontology Tools (APRICOT)
This international, multidisciplinary programme of work will develop tools and resources for the use of ontologies in the behavioural sciences - focusing on smoking cessation and physical activity.
Digital Health Hub for AMR
The hub brings together an interdisciplinary team to better deploy digital technologies in the fight against antimicrobial resistance across humans, animals and the environment.
Access to Justice
UCL’s Integrated Legal Advice Clinic is an example of a Health Justice Partnership in practice. It provides free legal advice to Stratford local community, to get the support they are entitled to.
Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE)
PAICE is a transdisciplinary project which aims to investigate the complex interactions between climate change action, health and health equity for translation of evidence into policy and practice.
Population Research UK
Population Research UK is an initiative co-led by UCL, dedicated to maximising the potential of longitudinal population studies in the UK across social, economic and biomedical research.
ProPASS Consortium: New Insights into Cancer Risk
Using data from over 200,000 people across 41 international studies, ProPASS explores how daily patterns of physical activity, sitting and sleep work together to influence cancer risk.
Driving evidence-based policy to improve health and reduce inequalities
Through five NIHR Policy Research Units, UCL is supporting national and local policy across cancer, child and family health, healthy weight, mental health and reproductive health.
Researchers in Residence Scheme – OHIDL and GLA
A policy fellowship scheme between UCL, OHID and GLA to strengthen networks and develop researchers’ skills in contributing to policy work. Applications for the 2025 scheme are now closed