Angela Harden

Angela Harden is a social scientist with almost 30 years of experience in applied health research to promote health and reduce health inequalities. She is currently Professor of Health Sciences at City, St. George's, University of London. She leads several research programmes developing and testing community-centred interventions to improve health outcomes for populations across the life course. These include developing and testing new community models of antenatal care (The REACH Pregnancy Programme), how to embed community-centred approaches within local government, and community-based activities to reduce loneliness and social isolation.Her research is interdisciplinary and interprofessional, and she works with a wide range of research methods, from participatory action research to randomised controlled trials.

Angela is also recognised as a world leader in evidence synthesis.Angela’s research has had a direct impact on policy, practice, and the public. For example, it underpins NICE Guidance on community engagement to reduce health inequalities and integrates findings from a young commissioners model into a toolkit published by NHS England (‘How to develop youth forums in the NHS’). Her methodological innovations in integrating diverse evidence have shaped how evidence for decision-making is produced globally.

She is passionate about building others' research capacity. She is currently the Director of the North Thames Applied Research Collaboration’s Academy, funded by the UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). Under her leadership, the Academy has achieved greater reach into underserved geographies, professions, organisations, and social groups.Angela has published extensively and has secured funding from national and international bodies. She is co-convening the international Cochrane Collaboration’s Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group.