Dr Peter Van der Graaf

Associate Professor

Department: Nursing, Midwifery & Health

Peter is an Associate Professor in Public Health at Northumbria University, where he manages the AskFuse service. AskFuse is the rapid response and evaluation service of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, which supports collaborative projects between academics and policy and practice partners in the North East of England and beyond.

He is Deputy-Lead for the Knowledge Mobilisation and Implementation Science theme within the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC), and a member of the NIHR Public Health Intervention Response Studies Team (PHIRST Fusion), which supports local authorities across the UK with evaluating their interventions. For example, he is leading an evaluation of the Whole Systems Approach to Child Healthy Weight in Dundee applying a peer research approach.

Previously, he held a prestigious NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowship, using ethnographic research to evaluate a System-Led Improvement Approach to Best Start in Life that developed professional peer reviewers between local authorities to improve evidence-informed decision making.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Peter is interested in the interface between research, practice and policy making and how this interface facilitates (or hinders) social improvement processes at local, regional, national and international levels. He conducts research on knowledge mobilisation in public health, with a focus on the wider determinants of health (e.g. housing, health landscapes, urban regeneration) and how they affect people's health and wellbeing.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Correction: Leading co-production in five UK collaborative research partnerships (2008–2018): responses to four tensions from senior leaders using auto-ethnography, van der Graaf, P., Kislov, R., Smith, H., Langley, J., Hamer, N., Cheetham, M., Wolstenholme, D., Cooke, J., Mawson, S. 24 Feb 2023, In: Implementation Science Communications
Leading co-production in five UK collaborative research partnerships (2008-2018): responses to four tensions from senior leaders using auto-ethnography, Van der Graaf, P., Kislov, R., Smith, H., Langley, J., Hamer, N., Cheetham, M., Wolstenholme, D., Cooke, J., Mawson, S. 27 Jan 2023, In: Implementation Science Communications
‘What I really want is academics who want to partner and who care about the outcome’: findings from a mixed-methods study of evidence use in local government in England, Cheetham, M., Redgate, S., Van der Graaf, P., Humble, C., Hunter, D., Adamson, A. 1 Feb 2023, In: Evidence and Policy
Co-production practice and future research priorities in United Kingdom-funded applied health research: a scoping review, Smith, H., Budworth, L., Grindey, C., Hague, I., Hamer, N., Kislov, R., van der Graaf, P., Langley, J. Dec 2022, In: Health Research Policy and Systems
Co-production in local government: process, codification and capacity building of new knowledge in collective reflection spaces. Workshops findings from a UK mixed methods study, van der Graaf, P., Cheetham, M., Redgate, S., Humble, C., Adamson, A. 1 Dec 2021, In: Health Research Policy and Systems
What makes a ‘successful’ collaborative research project between public health practitioners and academics? A mixed-methods review of funding applications submitted to a local intervention evaluation scheme, van der Graaf, P., Blank, L., Holding, E., Goyder, E. Dec 2021, In: Health Research Policy and Systems
Challenges, opportunities and solutions for local physical activity stakeholders: an implementation case study from a cross-sectoral physical activity network in Northeast England, P. Rigby, B., van der Graaf, P., B. Azevedo, L., Hayes, L., Gardner, B., J. Dodd-Reynolds, C. Dec 2020, In: BMC Public Health
Performing collaborative research: A dramaturgical reflection on an institutional knowledge brokering service in the North East of England, Van Der Graaf, P., Shucksmith, J., Rushmer, R., Rhodes, A., Welford, M. 8 May 2019, In: Health Research Policy and Systems
Embedded research: A promising way to create evidence-informed impact in public health?, Cheetham, M., Wiseman, A., Khazaeli, B., Gibson, E., Gray, P., Van Der Graaf, P., Rushmer, R. Mar 2018, In: Journal of Public Health (United Kingdom)
Localising and tailoring research evidence helps public health decision making, van der Graaf, P., Cheetham, M., McCabe, K., Rushmer, R. Sep 2018, In: Health Information and Libraries Journal

PGR Supervision

Ruth Muscat Enhancing knowledge mobilisation skills and training for health librarians: comparative case study analysis in the North East and North Cumbria Start Date: 11/07/2022