The team
Developing solutions to the complex problems related to health inequality requires collaboration between researchers from different backgrounds and with different skills.
For research to be credible and to have impact, it is important that people with experience of severe mental ill health (SMI), and those who care for them, are involved from the outset.
Our partners
The founding partners of the Closing the Gap network are from the Universities of York and Keele, the Mental Health Foundation and The Equality Trust.
We are a consortium of researchers and policy experts with complementary perspectives who will collaborate to ‘close the gap’ between physical and mental health.
We bring the perspectives of arts, technology, humanities, economics, clinical science, social science, environmental science and populations science to address health inequalities in SMI.
Read more about the network partners.
Our participants
At the heart of the Closing the Gap network is a research-ready cohort of people with real experience of SMI.
The Closing the Gap cohort is an ongoing project which includes over 8,000 people who have provided data on their health and lifestyle, a number which is growing all the time. This cohort has already helped researchers to deliver large-scale trials of smoking cessation and diabetes management in SMI.
Researchers who join us will be encouraged to collaborate with this innovative cohort to deliver internationally-excellent and impactful research.