Evaluation and Impact

Helen has worked as a Research Associate on a large educational value added assessment project, as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate on many different trials and evaluation projects, as a Lecturer in Research Methods, as a Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Manager at Teesside University and, most recently, as the EPSRC Knowledge Exchange Manager at Durham University.

Helen's research focuses on public health, children and education, and is supported by a two-pronged approach: a) synthesising the currently available primary evidence into a review format (rapid reviews to systematic reviews) and b) the development and evaluation of community based interventions to prevent and treat obesity in children.

Helen's skills are varied, but she particularly enjoys helping people design their evaluation work to generate the most useful results with the resource available. Helen is a member of the Association of the Study of Obesity, Fuse, SPHR, and the Cochrane Collaboration.

Helen is well published, and her work is highly cited; all citations: 6500, h-index: 33, i10-index: 47. She regularly publishes in high-ranking and impactful journals including, Journal of Sports Science, Trials, Systematic Reviews, Obesity Reviews, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, The BMJ, BMJ Open, and Journal of Physical Activity and Health.

Helen has an excellent track record of attracting research grant funding.

Helen has previously supervised a number of PhD and MPhil candidates to completion.

In this role, Nick's successful projects included, A living wage for Newcastle, The Newcastle Fairness Commission, and the Newcastle Future Needs Assessment – a collaborative and evidence-based approach to bringing partners together to determine priorities for the city.

Nick's research interests include in urban and regional governance and development (particularly UK regional economic inequality), labour markets, and social security policy. He is an experienced qualitative researcher, including interviewing and content analysis and he also expert in the use of quantitative data to develop and evaluate public policy.
Nick's academic projects include the political economy of place-based development, a detailed empirical and critical investigation into current subnational policy, focussing on its geographies, political relationships, decentralised institutions, and emergent policy rhetoric and planning for growth, an exploration of the potential role of local enterprise partnerships in spatial planning.

Hannah has worked in a variety of roles in the housing sector, most recently as Research Analyst on the Policy and Research team at Thirteen. In this role she delivered a range of qualitative and quantitative research projects on issues subjects affecting Thirteen and their customers, such as debt and income. Prior to this she worked in business development, where she supported on a number of high-level strategic projects in the employability and training sector, including the development of grants and bids. One of these projects being DWP's and ESF's Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) programme which brought over of 1.5million pounds into the Tees Valley, and so far, has supported over 1200 people with employment education or training support. Her career began as a support worker and she has worked in settings for young parents, mental health, families within the social care system and individuals suffering drug and alcohol addiction.

Hannah is interested in research which focuses on reducing health inequalities and increases psychological, physical and social wellbeing for vulnerable groups. Her current research looks at the relationship between in-work poverty and health behaviours. Hannah is interested in drug and alcohol research and support interventions, with previous work looking at legal highs. Future interests include suicidality prevention and the link between health and housing including e-health innovations such as telecare.
Hannah particularly enjoys implementing new contracts and taking projects from inception to routine operation.

Andrea joined Teesside University in 2015 working on projects looking at the impact of loneliness and social isolation, and the challenges faced by those at risk of extreme hardship.

Andrea's research interests focus on reducing health inequalities and the impacts of poverty, such as food insecurity. Andrea works on various research and evaluation projects with the most recent being the evaluation of a blood-borne virus test prompt in local GP surgeries to help tackle rates of late diagnosis of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.