Our vision

Helping the Council and our communities to improve the health and wellbeing of Somerset’s residents.

We are committed to empowering the Council and our communities to improve the health and wellbeing of Somerset’s residents.

By researching critical areas like:

  • housing
  • education
  • employment
  • transport
  • safe communities
  • access to nature

We want to make a real difference in daily lives.

Community at the heart

Community Participation is at the heart of HDRC. We believe in working together so that the voices of Somerset’s communities are not just heard but also shape our projects.

Through our Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAP), we will make sure that the real needs and experiences of our community members guide our efforts.

As a Council, we do research all the time. Whether it is through surveys, evaluations, engagement exercises, needs assessments or data analysis, we are constantly trying to understand and improve.

Our 5 year roadmap and milestones

2024

  • Build our team
  • Create the processes and infrastructure we need
  • Begin to establish a baseline on perceptions of and use of Research

2025

  • Publish baseline results
  • Build council-wide knowledge on the building blocks of health
  • Launch training and webinar programme
  • Open research support requests
  • Target and Strengthen community-participatory methods
  • Work with research partners to embed research and evaluation skills across the council
  • Plan programme evaluation with key partners

2026

  • Expand the HDRC offer
  • Establish new research processes in the council
  • Secure research funding opportunities
  • Mid-term stocktake
  • Continue building internal research and evaluation capacity
  • Embed sustainable research practices across departments

2027

  • Review the baseline to assess progress
  • Plan for sustainability
  • Identify how the council is using evidence and building community-based approaches into policy and practice

2028

  • Evaluate the programme
  • Celebrate success
  • Look to the future
  • Evaluate the impact of the HDRC on council research culture

Meet the team

Lou Woolway

Strategic lead for the Somerset HDRC. Ensuring alignment with local priorities to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities across the county.

Brittney Strange

Programme Manager for the Somerset HDRC. Responsible for overseeing the programme’s vision, coordinating delivery across workstreams, and supporting collaboration between partners and communities.

Dr Frederick Marais

Works part-time within the Community Participation workstream, specialising in community-based participatory research and evaluation to co-produce meaningful, community-led change.

Alex Hewitt

Full-time member of the Community Participation workstream, focused on bridging the gap between researchers and communities to ensure that the work undertaken is relevant and beneficial to those it is meant to serve.

Dr Emily Dodd

Works two days a week in the Community Participation workstream, supporting communities to embed lived experience into all aspects of research in Somerset.

Dr Olly Clabburn

Splits his time between Spark Somerset and the HDRC. Contributing to the Community Participation workstream with a focus on research that delivers real-world impact for communities.

Dan Navarra

Works alongside Abbie as a Community Co-Researcher, drawing on lived experience to shape research and evaluation. Together, they collaborate with a range of groups to ensure findings lead to meaningful, community-driven improvements in health and wellbeing across Somerset.

Abbie Hughes

Works alongside Dan as a Community Co-Researcher, using lived experience to shape research and evaluation. Together, they collaborate with local groups to ensure research leads to meaningful, community-led improvements in health and wellbeing across Somerset.

Jess Horner

Collects and analyses data to support research activities, identifying evidence-based tools and developing effective ways to share insights and findings.

Ria Saha

Leads the development of the council’s research infrastructure and academic partnerships, helping to secure funding and build research capability across Somerset.

Hamed Zandian

Senior Research Fellow from UWE. Working part-time with the HDRC with expertise in health economics and evaluating public and social health interventions.

Jack Brazier

Research Culture and Capacity Building Service Manager, supporting colleagues and services to embed research, evaluation, and evidence into everyday practice and decision-making.

Emily Hutt

Health Improvement Manager working part-time in the HDRC. Leading on training and development to build research skills and confidence across the workforce.

Rosie Bennetts

Works part-time leading on communications and engagement for the HDRC. Ensuring that community voices are central and that all outputs are shared in an engaging and accessible way.