A new Health Equity Research Alliance (HERA) has been launched by RCSI, uniting researchers, international experts and people with lived experiences in advancing equity-informed and inclusive health research.

The launch, which took place on 26 February, marks a significant step in strengthening collaboration to tackle the structural barriers to equitable health research and, in turn, reduce unfair health inequalities.

Health equity is becoming a defining priority for the future of health research, driving efforts to confront historical exclusion and create more inclusive and representative evidence. According to HERA member Dr Olga Cleary, Cameron Lecturer at RCSI: “We know that health outcomes are not the same for everyone, and many population groups remain under-represented in research. When people are overlooked, the evidence we rely on can miss what matters most in their lives. The launch of HERA is about changing this – embedding inclusion into how research is designed and carried out so it better reflects people’s lived realities and helps improve health for all.”

Professor Edward Gregg, Head of RCSI’s School of Population Health, formally launched the Alliance and underscored its importance: “The launch of the Health Equity Alliance is an initiative I am proud to be a part of. It showcases HERA’s commitment to creating health research that aims to uncover and understand the systemic inequalities in population health and prioritise the approaches to reduce them. I am excited about what this initiative can do over the coming months, enhancing not only RCSI’s research ethos but also health equity across Ireland.”

The launch event featured a masterclass opened with international health equity leader Mr Jordi Pardo Pardo, who spoke on practical approaches to operationalising equity in health research and the challenges of implementation. He was followed by Mr Omar Dewidar, GRADE-Equity Coordination Lead with the Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group at the University of Ottawa, who discussed how STROBE-Equity strengthens the standardised reporting of observational studies in epidemiology. The masterclass concluded with a presentation from Ms Liz Hughes, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at RCSI.

Closing the day, a panel discussion examined what Ireland needs to prioritise to enable equitable health research. It was chaired by HERA member, Dr Eunice Phillip, Global Health Researcher in the RCSI School of Population Health, who is contributing to health equity in Ireland and internationally as an expert in participatory research approaches.

The panel of speakers included Christopher Carroll from the HSE, Greg Straton from the Department of Health and Siobhan Gaffney, a patient and public involvement (PPI) representative who is working with the Converge Research Centre at RCSI.

According to Siobhan Gaffney: “Patient and public involvement in research has come a long way, but to make sure research delivers real impact for everyone, we need to view research through an equity lens. So-called ‘hard-to-reach’ groups are not hard to find, too often our systems have not spoken to them in ways that resonate, or listened when they share their experiences.”

The HERA aims to address this by reshaping how research is designed and delivered so that no community is overlooked and equity is included in every step of the research journey. 

HERA member Dr Samira Jabakhanji is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Population Health and one of the event organisers. She said that “health equity has gathered more momentum recently, both within RCSI itself and nationally”.

HERA’s launch marks a commitment to enhancing health equity, coinciding with other initiatives prioritising health equity at a national level to create a more inclusive knowledge base. HERA emphasises that this vision can only be achieved collectively to create the platform where our work, practice, and policies embed and address unfair health gaps.