Back in 2014, a team of researchers from King’s College London (KCL), Public Health England (PHE), the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Newcastle won a £4million grant from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to consolidate their existing research into emergencies and to set up a Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR). The aim was to conduct research to help PHE minimise the impact of emergencies. That programme of work lasted six years. 

In April 2020, the KCL, UEA and PHE teams won another £4million from NIHR to renew the unit for five more years. That award was launched just as the Covid pandemic hit. We spent the first three years responding at high speed to a huge number of requests from Government, producing over 100 papers on Covid and influencing many key policies. 

April 2025 saw the launch of the third iteration of the team. Our new, streamlined grant of £1.5million is for a Health Protection Research Focus Award (HPRFA). To help differentiate ourselves from a separate team from the University of Birmingham who won the competition for the HPRU EPR, we have adopted a new name. We are now the HPRFA in Outbreak Related Behaviours (ORB). 

In collaboration with King's College London and University of East Anglia.