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
Developing and implementing whole systems approaches to reduce inequalities in childhood obesity: A mixed methods study in Dundee, Scotland, Van der Graaf, P., Subramanian, M., Gillespie, J., Passey, A., Chng, N., Lake, A., Moore, H. 21 Dec 2024, In: Public Health in Practice
Developing an online knowledge sharing platform and community of practice for health professionals: Experiences from C-WorKS developed in North East England and Yorkshire during COVID-19, Van der Graaf, P., Burrows, A., Park, H., Sowden, S. 1 Feb 2024, In: Health Information and Libraries Journal
Implementing creative dance activities for primary school children to improve health and wellbeing: a qualitative study in the North East England, Van der Graaf, P., Azevedo, L., El-Zerbi, C., Landindome, P., Watson, P. 2024, In: Perspectives in Public Health
Learning from failures in knowledge exchange and turning them into successes, Van der Graaf, P., van de Goor, I., Purington Drake, A. 1 Feb 2024, In: Evidence and Policy
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
Performing Impact in Research: A Dramaturgical Reflection on Knowledge Brokers in Academia, Van Der Graaf, P. 12 Apr 2023, The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education, Cham, Switzerland, Springer
‘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

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Developing an NIHR Health and Social care Delivery Research (HSDR) national evaluation team: InterDisciplinary Evaluation of complex innovations in heAlth and Social care (IDEAS) Centre, Bate, A. (Principal Investigator), Van der Graaf, P. (Co Investigator), National Institute for Health Research, 01/02/25 - 31/01/30, £3,028,752.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: Knowledge mobilisation: experiences beyond the East 2025
Membership of committee: NIHR & Department of Health (External organisation) 2024
Membership of board: University of Nottingham (External organisation) 2024
Membership of board: Fuse (External organisation) 2024
Hosting an academic visitor: Ien van de Goor 2023
Membership of board: Gateshead Council (External organisation) 2023
Invited talk: Chair Organising Committee 2022
Invited talk: Learning from Setbacks and Successes in Knowledge Exchange in Public Health 2021
Membership of committee: Health Research Board Ireland (External organisation) 2018
Membership of board: NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) (External organisation) 2018

PGR Supervision

Simon Douglas Start Date: 10/09/2024
Paige Elliott Managing pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy in children with cystic fibrosis in the highly effective modulator era. Start Date: 01/10/2023
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