A dynamic academic-service collaboration dedicated to transforming health and care across the East of England.
Healthy Futures East (HFE) is a collaborative programme designed to strengthen the interface between research and practice in health and care across the East of England. We support evidence-informed decision-making and service improvement through structured partnerships and shared learning.
Our mission is to strengthen the integration of research and practice in the East of England, leveraging collective expertise to address health challenges, reduce inequalities, and improve health outcomes for all. We aim to build capacity, enhance knowledge exchange, and drive impactful, sustainable improvements in health and care services with a clear focus on achieving population health impact.
Read our introductory blog: Healthy Futures East: Connecting knowledge, practice and place
We bring together universities, health and care systems, local authorities, and communities to tackle complex health challenges through evidence-based, place-sensitive solutions. By integrating research and practice, we foster innovation, equity, and real-world problem solving—building capacity, accelerating knowledge exchange, and improving health outcomes for all.
Our Aims:
- Connect and Collaborate: Establish cross-regional partnerships, structures, and processes to share insights on population health needs and research opportunities.
- Innovate Solutions: Develop HFE Task Force Approach to address pressing health and care issues through evidence-based approaches.
- Build Capacity: Strengthen skills and knowledge at the academic–service interface, enabling faster translation of research into action and effective evaluation of service delivery.
HFE Task Force Approach
Our unique task force model enables rapid, collaborative responses to pressing issues, ensuring that local context and lived experience shape sustainable improvements in health and care. Each task force brings together academics, practitioners, and service users to
- Co-define problems
- Synthesise diverse evidence
- Generate actionable recommendations.
This approach supports integrated care systems by aligning with population health management priorities and producing practical, place-based solutions that are ready for implementation.
Click on image for full size.
HFE has grown out of a strong foundation of regional collaboration, evolving from the East of England Population Health Research Hub (PHReSH). PHReSH brought together over 80 academics and practitioners to support the COVID-19 response, demonstrating the power of cross-sectoral partnerships in tackling urgent health challenges. It focused on evidence generation, knowledge exchange, and capacity building—principles that continue to underpin HFE’s work. PHResH resources remain available in the PHResH Resource Library.
In late 2023, a regional roundtable identified a shared ambition to deepen collaboration between academic and service partners to address complex population health needs. Recognising the limitations of fragmented efforts and the need for coordinated action, a Task and Finish group was formed to develop a new model for integrated working. Their recommendations led to the creation of Healthy Futures East—a forward-looking, action-oriented collaboration designed to harness the region’s rich expertise and resources.
In March 2025, we hosted the Healthier Futures for the East Symposium at the University of Cambridge to mark the transition from PHResH to HFE. This milestone event brought together over 90 leaders from academia, public health, the NHS, Integrated Care Boards, local authorities, and national funders. Together, we reflected on the region’s health challenges, celebrated PHResH’s achievements, and co-designed the vision for HFE. The symposium catalysed a shared ambition: to build a more collaborative, preventive, and data-informed health system that delivers deep and lasting impact.
The insights and recommendations from the symposium directly shaped HFE’s structure, priorities, and approach. With a dedicated core team, strategic governance, and a scalable operating model, HFE now leads a region-wide effort to integrate research and practice, pilot Health Challenge Task Forces and embed evaluation and knowledge mobilisation into service improvement.
Steering Group
|
Aliko Ahmed, Regional Director of Public Health, DHSC, OHID & NHSE – East of England Aliko is the Regional Director of Public Health for East of England (NHS and OHID). He has three decades of working experience as a hospital clinician, academician, and public health practitioner. He is passionate about health equity for all of society – and works through collaborative partnerships to facilitate, coordinate, optimise support and delivery of population health outcomes. He is a Senior Fellow and convenor of the Public Health Policy Forum at Chatham House and an Associate Director of Cambridge Public Health. |
|
John Clarkson, Co-Director, Cambridge Public Health, University of Cambridge John is Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Cambridge. He is also a co-Director of Cambridge Public Health, where he brings a systems engineering perspective to health and care, co-leading the technology and systems theme. His work focuses on collaborating with engineers, public health researchers and NHS teams to design more effective and resilient health and care systems, and to inform better treatment strategies. |
|
Sian Evans, Deputy Director Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service (LKIS) / Acting Associate Director LKIS East Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Sian is a consultant in public health with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) where she is Associate Director of the Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service in the East of England. She has extensive experience in population health intelligence to inform national and local decision-making. Prior to joining OHID, Sian worked with the Eastern Region Public Health Observatory having previously completed her public health training in Lanarkshire and Leeds. She is a PHResH Steering Committee Member. |
|
Helen Green, Consultant in Public Health – Population Health and Quality (East of England), NHS England, East of England Helen is a Consultant in Public Health with NHS England East of England’s Public Health Directorate working on population health and quality. She has experience working in East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust as the continuous improvement strategic lead and supporting regional Integrated Care Boards with developing their population health management capacity and capability. She was previously the chair of the East of England Population Health Research Hub’s evaluation working group, bringing together expertise to support evaluation capacity building. Helen has a PhD in epidemiology, with a background working in public health surveillance nationally and internationally. |
|
Danielle Cannon, Head of Strategy, Cambridge Public Health, University of Cambridge Danielle is Head of Strategy for Cambridge Public Health (CPH). She supports the CPH Co-Directors, manages the co-ordination team and operationalises the centre’s long-term vision and strategy. Danielle has a PhD in BioPhysics from the University of Cambridge, studying amyloid aggregation. She previously worked at Wellcome, where she managed the Cell Biology portfolio and a subset of the population health portfolio. She also led on large projects and strategic initiatives including the UK Biobank, Wellcome Centres competition and Health Data Research UK. |
Core team
|
Danielle Tucker, Programme Director, Healthy Futures East Danielle is the Programme Director of Healthy Futures East, and the Academic Knowledge Mobilisation Lead at the NIHR ARC East of England. She is a Reader at Essex Business School, University of Essex, where she has served as Director of Impact and Enterprise since 2022. Her research interests focus on evaluating complex change management initiatives for health and social care organisations. She is particularly interested in the flow of information and ideas across boundaries, partnership working and collaboration arrangements, for example, integrated care. |
|
Becky Wolfe, Communications Manager, Cambridge Public Health Becky leads the communications for Cambridge Public Health. She is responsible for planning and delivering the external communications for the Centre including producing content for the website and organising events. Becky's background is in health research communications with previous experience working on global health research programmes at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Becky holds a BA in Economics from the University of Sheffield and a Masters in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia. |
|
Sharon Chow, Programme Manager, Healthy Futures East Sharon brings over 15 years of interdisciplinary experience across academia, NGOs, and government, with a focus on sustainability, health, and social impact. Before her current role, Sharon led two charitable foundations in Hong Kong, empowering emerging academic leaders and organizations to drive sustainable and community-based programmes for the vulnerable. Sharon holds degrees from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong, is an alumna of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and is pursuing a PhD in Public Health focused on affordable, climate-resilient housing for vulnerable communities. |
Healthy Futures East is guided by a multi-tiered governance model designed to ensure strategic alignment, operational effectiveness, and inclusive representation across the East of England. At the core is the Advisory Group, jointly chaired by academic and public health leaders, which sets strategic direction and priorities. Supporting this is a Steering Group responsible for resource allocation and decision-making, and an Operational Group that oversees day-to-day delivery and problem-solving. The work is driven through dedicated Workstreams, each focused on specific projects and thematic areas, ensuring that regional needs are addressed through collaborative, evidence-informed action.
Click on image for full size
We collaborate with a wide range of organisations, including academic and research institutions, local government, NHS/health system actors and community groups.
Click on image for full size
