Senior Researcher Dr Joanna Crocker has been appointed as one of three Chief Scientific Advisors to the Local Policy Lab, a partnership between the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and Oxfordshire County Council.
Joanna will lead a three-year research programme under the theme 'Ensuring a healthy standard of living for all', working closely with policymakers and communities to address health inequalities across the county.
The Local Policy Lab was founded in 2024 to bridge the gap between academic research and local policymaking. The alliance brings together Oxford's two universities and local government to support evidence-based responses to some of Oxfordshire's most pressing challenges – with a particular focus on the socio-economic factors that shape health, such as housing, employment and access to services.
The Lab's work is organised around three priority themes aligned with the Marmot framework for reducing health inequalities: delivering a skilled workforce and fair employment, ensuring a healthy standard of living for all, and enabling children and young people to thrive. Each of the newly appointed Chief Scientific Advisors will take responsibility for one of these themes.
The appointment builds on Joanna's established track record in community-engaged research. Her work focuses on patient, public and community involvement in health research, with a particular interest in how such involvement can help reduce health inequalities. She recently held an OPEN Fellowship partnering with Oxfordshire County Council to support development of the Oxfordshire Community Research Network, and has been supporting Refugee Resource to conduct peer research as part of the University's Science Together programme.
She has also led work synthesising research priorities identified by James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships – collaborations that bring together patients, carers and clinicians to shape research agendas – and developed an interactive tool to help explore cross-cutting themes across these partnerships.
Dr Joanna Crocker said: "This role brings together two things I care deeply about: making sure research is shaped by the people it's meant to help, and tackling the unfair differences in health that exist even within a county like Oxfordshire. The Local Policy Lab offers a real opportunity to connect academic research with local decision-making in a way that's grounded in community priorities. I'm looking forward to working with partners across the county to build a research agenda that can make a genuine difference."
The other Chief Scientific Advisors appointed are Professor James Robson from the Department of Education, University of Oxford, who will lead on skilled workforce and fair employment, and Associate Professor Jonathan Reid from Oxford Brookes University, who will focus on enabling children and young people to thrive.
Dr Martin Reeves, Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council, said the appointments reflect the council's "ongoing commitment to using robust evidence and innovative thinking to make Oxfordshire a greener, fairer, and healthier county."
Professor Alexander Betts, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement, Sport and Community at the University of Oxford, added: "The new Local Policy Lab Chief Scientific Advisers will help better bridge research, policy and communities and we look forward to their collaborative approaches to addressing some of the most pressing challenges across Oxfordshire."
Find out more about the Local Policy Lab.