Wellcome takes a broader view of public health

The Wellcome Trust is looking for a head of population, environment and health to lead the charity's efforts in broadening its approach to health research.

In a blog published 21 May, the trust director Jeremy Farrar said traditional public health research provided only part of the solution for dealing with the challenges posed by an ageing population and changing disease patterns.

“We need to broaden our traditional view of public health to ensure we can address the challenges of the 21st century and bring a capacity for influencing policy and practice much more to the fore,” he said. To unite all this thinking, the post of head of population, environment and health, to work across all of the trust’s activities, had been created to bring together a mixed team of research and policy, he said.