The SPHeRE Network 11th Annual Conference
‘Translating research to health policy and system change’
will take place on Tuesday 4th March 2025 in RCSI
Abstract submission
At the SPHeRE Network 11th Annual Conference we will examine how research can and does influence health policy and system reform.
We will showcase different aspects of population health, health services and policy research that address key policy and health system challenges resulting in positive health system change. The conference is an opportunity to hear from international and national leaders in the field, to understand how different disciplines, sectors and researchers can work together using high quality academic research to guide health system and policy decision-making which shape population health and health system reform.
Conference Keynote Speakers
Prof Lucy Gilson
University of Cape Town/London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Prof Lucy Gilson holds the appointment of professor both at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. Her research broadly focuses on how to strengthen health systems to offer better public value, with particular concern for health equity. She has a track record of research around: health policy implementation; decentralisation, district health systems and primary health care; user fees and financing issues; governance, leadership and management. As she has a particular interest in understanding health system actors’ decision-making, her work also considers how trust and power relations shape health system dynamics and complexity – recognising these relations as critical elements of health system software, and important in health system resilience. Lucy’s postgraduate teaching focuses on health policy, health leadership, health systems and health policy and systems research. In South Africa, she engages closely with the Western Cape Department of Health, supporting health system development. She is the co-Editor in Chief of journal Health Policy and Planning.