…a new individual! Fiona Campbell and Katie Thomson, researchers from the University of Newcastle in the UK, are delighted to have recently joined the Africa Evidence Network (AEN). Both are members of the Evidence Synthesis Group within the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle.
Fiona is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle with extensive experience in conducting and publishing evidence reviews for organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the Cochrane Collaboration. Her research focuses on methodological approaches to systematic reviews, including mixed methods synthesis, scoping and mapping reviews, Evidence and Gap Maps, rapid reviews, and qualitative syntheses.
Katie is a Senior Research Associate working across the Innovation Observatory, the Applied Research Collaboration, and the Newcastle Technology Assessment Review Group. Her work centres on rapid evidence synthesis, Health Technology Assessments (HTAs), and addressing health inequalities.
More recently, Fiona and Katie have developed a growing interest in the health impacts of climate change. Together with colleagues Nedson Pophiwa, Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg and Ronald Munatsi, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Evidence Informed Policy Network (ZeipNET), they successfully secured funding from the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences to work on two new projects.
The first project aims to build a collaborative network of researchers in Southern Africa and the UK focused on the effects of air pollution on child health. This work involves mapping the existing evidence base and developing research proposals to address priority gaps in the field. The second project explores how research evidence and other factors influence climate-related policy. This project encompasses both a document analysis and qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders.
Fiona and Katie look forward to sharing their findings with the AEN community over the next 18 months. For more information about their projects, feel free to reach out to Fiona (fiona.campbell1@newcastle.ac.uk) or Katie (katie.thomson@newcastle.ac.uk).
