Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC)

About us

The Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC) is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary research centre focused on producing research that makes a difference to people’s lives by improving the quality of health and social care services and promoting health and wellbeing. At the last assessment of research quality (REF 2021) over 80% of our research was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

The Centre, which is part of the School of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences brings together over 30 researchers, as well as our associate members, with backgrounds in nursing, primary care, public health, epidemiology, social work, the social sciences, mental health, nutrition and more. Key areas of research activity include:

• Communities, Young People and Family Lives
• Place Based Ageing
• Public involvement and engagement in health and care
• Data, AI, and Technology

CRIPACC joins new phase of NIHR ARC East of England

We are delighted to share that CRIPACC will continue to be part of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England, contributing to its next phase of impactful health and social care research.

The NIHR ARC East of England has secured a £15.3 million investment for the next five years, as part of a wider £157 million commitment from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to support applied research that transforms health and care systems. This funding builds on the success of the ARC East of England’s previous phase, which delivered over 260 research projects and attracted around £62 million in additional funding between 2019 and 2025.

Starting in April 2026 and over the next five years, the ARC East of England will focus on tackling health inequalities, improving outcomes for patients and communities, and accelerating the implementation of evidence-based interventions into practice.

CRIPACC’s researchers will continue to have a key role in programme – Dr. Claire Thompson will lead the research theme in Prevention and Early Detection in Health and Social Care while Prof. Kathryn Almack will lead the and Social Care, Dementia and Ageing theme. Dr. Elspeth Mathie will lead the Research Inclusion workstream. They are joined by many other researchers in CRIPACC bringing additional world-leading expertise to the ARC.

As part of this new phase, Prof. Alejandro Quiroz Flores (Director of CRIPACC) has been appointed Co‑Director of the ARC East of England, while Professor Stephen Morris from the University of Cambridge moves into the role of Director.

The refreshed ARC programme introduces updated priorities and research themes across a collaboration of five universities, hosted by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. Together with cross-cutting workstreams, these efforts aim to ensure that research is both inclusive and directly relevant to real-world challenges. The ARC continues to partner with Health Innovation East and many other stakeholders to make sure that research responds to the needs of health and care systems and the communities they serve.

By joining this collaboration, CRIPACC will play a key role in advancing high-quality, scalable applied research and ensuring that robust evidence is translated into meaningful improvements in policy and practice.

We look forward to working with partners across the East of England and beyond to drive innovation, support communities, and deliver lasting impact in health and social care.

Our Professional Doctorates

We offer a wide range of opportunities to undertake research degrees in health and social care related disciplines; whether that be one of our two Professional Doctorates, the Doctorate in Public Health and Doctorate in Health and Social Care, or via one of our current 13 PhD routes.

With the most recent UK assessment of research quality (REF 2021) reporting that over 82% of the research conducted in the School of Health and Social Work, and associated Research Centres, was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent, we pride ourselves in supporting our Post Graduate Research students to develop themselves and their research skills while planning and delivering their own original doctoral-level research. Students are supported via the supervision and guidance of two or more academic members of staff as supervisors; and further supported by the University’s Researcher Development Programme, together with bespoke workshops and sessions delivered online and in our Departmental Research Hub.

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Professor Alejandro Quiroz Flores

Centre Director

Professor Alejandro Quiroz Flores is the Director of the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC). Previously, Professor Flores was Professor of Government and Deputy Director of the Business and Local Government Data Research Centre at the University of Essex. Between 2019 and 2024, Professor Flores was the Chief Scientific Adviser to Essex County Council, based at the Institute for Analytics and Data Science, University of Essex. He obtained his PhD in Politics at New York University and his MPhil at the University of Oxford. Professor Flores specialises in Econometrics, Machine Learning, and Political Economy, and their applications to public health and public policy. His work has appeared at PLOS ONE, Global Environmental Change, and British Journal of Political Science, among others. His most recent books are Survival Analysis: A New Guide for Social Scientists (2022), and The Selection and Tenure of Foreign Ministers Around the World (2024), both by Cambridge University Press.

Meet the team