Professor Peter van der Graaf, PHIRST Fusion Co-Lead. Professor in Public Health and Knowledge Mobilisation, Northumbria University

Peter has over 25 years of experience in applied health research and collaborative research partnerships in the UK and the Netherlands, involving local government, academia, and voluntary & community sector organisations.

He is Knowledge Mobilisation Lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC), co-leading a team of Knowledge Mobilisation Fellows to implement research evidence into the decision making of the Integrated Care System in the region.

As Associate Director for Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public, he developed and managed the innovative AskFuse service, which has brokered over 500 collaborative research projects between academics and policy & practice partners in the North East of England and beyond.

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.