Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Working in partnership both locally and globally, we are tackling each of the UN Sustainable Development Goals through our research and knowledge exchange, education and student experience, and through our operations. Discover how our unique commitments align with and support Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing.

Research and knowledge exchange

The University of Liverpool advances SDG 3 by driving innovative health solutions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and outreach initiatives that address global health inequalities and support community wellbeing. The University of Liverpool’s new Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL) brings together community members, health professionals, and researchers to develop AI and data-driven health solutions. The Institute of Population Health facilitate interdisciplinary partnerships based on a shared vision, sharing knowledge and expertise, with Liverpool Health Partners, the Northern Health Science Alliance and local NHS Trusts. Outreach initiatives, including the Merseyside Young Health and Life Scientists programme, support young people from under-represented groups interested in pursuing health and life sciences. Additionally, research projects like the Children Growing Up in Liverpool (C-GULL) Study are contributing to long-term efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of families in the Liverpool City Region.

Operations

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all is essential to sustainable development. To support this goal, we created a Wellbeing Map that highlights various on-campus resources for student and staff wellness, including places to be active, connect, find support, take time out, and eat well. Our Sport Liverpool centre offers facilities that enhance physical and mental health, open to both the university community and the public. Campus green spaces, such as the library garden and Ness Botanical gardens, invite relaxation and engagement with nature.

We have a Wellbeing Advice and Guidance Team who provide information, advice, and guidance to students on a range of personal and social issues, with a focus on improving the overall mental and physical wellbeing. The Mental Health Advisory Service provide a confidential service for students experiencing complex and/or significant mental health difficulties. Students can also access a confidential, inclusive Counselling Service with qualified therapists trained in a range of evidence-based psychological therapies. We are committed to ensuring that our staff have a safe, healthy, and enjoyable place to work, through our Employee Assistance Programme, offering a range of services.  Our Student Health Centre provides dedicated student health services and surgeries, and the Student Health Advice Centre offers a full range of nursing services including contraception, sexual health screening, health advice, minor injuries, and the management of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes.

Education and student experience

Achieving good health and well-being is a complex, multifaceted goal, and at the University of Liverpool, students can explore its causes and solutions from diverse perspectives through a range of course modules. Health, Cultures and Societies provides an exciting opportunity for students to explore issues around health, illness, wellbeing, and medicine. The Regulations of Medicine, Health and Social Care investigates the regulatory frameworks in health and social care, focusing on their theoretical foundations, impact on stakeholders, the role of competition versus health values, and how regulation intersects with expertise, trust, and service provision. Students can also support the aims and objectives of SDG3 by delivering workshops on mental health and wellbeing as an outreach volunteer.

Case Studies

Creating Healthy Urban Places in Liverpool and Bradford

Researchers at the University of Liverpool received funding to deliver a 4-year project aiming to better understand what makes places healthy and help prevent the development of illnesses and reduce inequalities. Significantly, it will invite the local community to contribute to the study that explores how the local environment impacts on health and wellbeing. Called Healthy Urban Places, the project is funded by UKRI’s Population Health Improvement UK (PHI-UK) initiative, to deliver the project by working with partners in two major northern cities – Bradford and Liverpool. Healthy Urban Places investigates how and why health is affected by the quality of our local environments, looking at housing and air quality, access to parks, public transport, schools, and health services etc. Its aim is to inform and influence policy makers on decisions that improve local places for health, particularly for those who need them the most. ‘Community collaboratives will bring together communities, researchers, and decision-makers, to guide the work. The collaboratives will train local people to become peer researchers who will speak to residents to explore what makes a healthy place. They will work with key stakeholders and decision makers to investigate how place-based changes impact on the health of communities.

Fleming Fund Fellowship Programme

The University of Liverpool was awarded £1.3 million as part of the UK Government’s Fleming Fund Fellowship Programme to support mentorship and professional development for those involved in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance in Fleming Fund partner countries. The Fleming Fund, managed by the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), aids 25 countries in Africa and Asia in combating AMR, a major contributor to infectious disease deaths. Liverpool will now host fellows from Nigeria and Sierra Leone, two countries heavily affected by AMR. Up to 20 fellows will be selected over the next two years to tackle AMR challenges in their regions. Led by Professor Alison Holmes and managed by infectious disease experts, the University’s team will provide expertise and mentorship. Professor Holmes, a key figure in the Centres for Antimicrobial Optimisation Network (CAMO-Net), emphasizes the importance of this scheme in developing solutions to AMR. The programme will focus on improving the quality of AMR data, sharing insights with decision-makers, and promoting sustainable solutions. This award strengthens Liverpool's reputation for leadership in AMR research and global health.

Food Policies and Disease Prevention – the IMPACT model

Researchers at the University of Liverpool developed computational models to quantify and compare different prevention policies, successfully advancing food policies such as the UK dietary salt reduction targets, sugary drinks tax, along with EU and WHO policies to eliminate industrial transfats from the world's food supplies. Non-communicable diseases include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia and cancers, and prematurely kill over 175,000 Britons every year. However, most premature NCDs are preventable. Crucially, some 40% are attributable to poor diet and obesity. The comprehensive research programme uses innovative computational models to define epidemiological trends, then quantify and compare the potential health, economic and equity benefits of healthier food policies to prevent NCDs. Compared with medical treatments, population-wide NCD prevention policies consistently save more lives, reduce inequalities and achieve impressive cost-savings. The IMPACT computational epidemiological models provide clear explanations for the dramatic cardiovascular and NCD trends in the UK, USA and diverse high-, middle- and low-income countries. The work informing evidence-based healthy food policies covers three areas: Sugary Drinks Tax and Obesity Prevention, Dietary Salt Reduction Policies, and Eliminating Industrial Transfats. The ongoing research involves further modelling innovation and seeks to better understand the evolving burden of premature NCDs, and how best to prevent them by harnessing policy actions across all sectors of society. To effect real change to health and food policy, researchers work in partnership with a wide range of key stakeholders, including advocacy groups, policy makers, and local councils, while also advocating their research on influential committees, groups and councils. The results have successfully advanced diverse food policies, by empowering advocacy groups and informing parliament and government.

The LONGEVITY Project

In 2020, the University of Liverpool launched the LONGEVITY project, aimed at improving long-acting therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis, malaria, and hepatitis C. With over £6M in funding awarded by Unitaid in 2023, the project achieved preclinical proof of concept for long-acting medications targeting tuberculosis and hepatitis C therapy. The project focused on ensuring these therapeutics were accessible in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A key component of the University’s Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT), the project brought together expertise from pharmacology and materials chemistry to develop long-acting drug delivery systems, which are increasingly vital in combating global health threats like antimicrobial resistance (AMR). LONGEVITY’s extension funding allowed the continuation of work that addressed specific challenges in LMICs, with the program serving as a prime example of interdisciplinary collaboration in global health innovation.

Highlighting inequality in green spaces and mental health

A study led by researchers from the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems at the University of Liverpool highlighted the beneficial role of greenness and access to green or blue spaces in reducing socioeconomic-related inequalities in mental health. The researchers found that every additional 360m to the nearest green (e.g. park, field or wooded area) or blue (e.g. lake, marina, or the sea) space was associated with higher odds of anxiety and depression. Researchers worked with international partners to anonymously link records of household greenness, access to green and blue space, and GP records of anxiety and depression for over 2 million adults in Wales. While the effects of green spaces on mental health have been well documented, using the medical records of an entire adult population over such a considerable length of time gives a new level of understanding to this work. The researchers emphasised that investing in improved public green spaces might bring mental health benefits to everyone, but particularly for those living in more deprived areas. The findings can support organisations and authorities responsible for green and blue spaces, who are attempting to engage planners and policymakers, to ensure that local green and blue spaces meet the health needs of residents. The researchers call for future studies to investigate why those living in lower-income and higher-income areas are affected differently by access and exposure to green and blue spaces. We need to ensure that those who are in the most need, and will benefit the most, have access to these free green and blue spaces, helping to protect the health of our population.