Professor Niamh Fitzgerald

Professor

Institute for Social Marketing University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Niamh Fitzgerald

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About me

My research and teaching interests are primarily in alcohol policy, in particular mixed-method, interdisciplinary studies of population-level policies, and commercial determinants of health including product marketing, conflicts of interest and policy processes. I am involved in the supervision of several PhD students and am open to enquiries from anyone interested in a research degree on these topics.

I am one of two Deputy Directors of the SPECTRUM (Shaping Public hEalth poliCies To Reduce ineqUalities and harM) Consortium which focuses on commercial determinants of health in relation to alcohol, tobacco and food. SPECTRUM is funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (2019-2024) and includes 10 universities and multiple policy/practice partners. My role is to lead on impact, knowledge exchange and public engagement for the consortium - co-ordinating knowledge exchange events (including annual courses for ECRs, policymakers and practitioners) and overseeing public involvement groups at the Universities of Stirling and Nottingham and King's College London. Academics wishing to consult the public on alcohol/tobacco/food research can get in touch to arrange to meet with these groups.

I originally trained as a pharmacist, working primarily in community pharmacy, but also addiction services and the pharmaceutical industry. I received my PhD in 2003 from Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen, Scotland, for a qualitative study of policy, planning and practice in school-based drug education.  After my PhD I held a training role at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, then worked for 10 years as an independent consultant.

From 2007-2011, I was heavily involved in the national alcohol brief intervention programme in Scotland, and have worked extensively on this topic including internationally. I recently authored two training manuals on alcohol brief interventions (in primary care and trauma settings) for the WHO-Europe office for NCD prevention.

I sit on the board of ICARA - the International Confederation of ATOD (Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug) Research Associations (http://www.icara.info) as immediate past president. ICARA works to support research associations with governance and capacity building particularly in low and middle income countries.

I specialise in mixed methods alcohol policy research and have broad interests within that field including these studies underway or being written up:

  • ELEPHANT (Evaluating later or expanded premises hours for alcohol in the night time economy) - an NIHR-funded mixed-methods study of the impact of later opening hours for alcohol in Glasgow and Aberdeen cities.
  • ExILEnS - an NIHR-funded mixed-methods study of the impact of public health engagement in alcohol premises licensing in England and Scotland (PI);
  • IMPAACT - a CSO study of the impact of alcohol on the ambulance service including whether MUP affected the number of alcohol-related ambulance call-outs in Scotland (PI). I am also Co-Ion three other studies of MUP's impact - in the small retail sector, in youth/binge drinkers and in prescribing data.
  • Several studies of self report and biochemical methods of identifying alcohol use in pregnancy.

I am interested in the language used to discuss alcohol problems and policies and how it impacts on public and policymaker attitudes.  I am leading the IDEA (Identifying & DEscribing Arguments) project which is developing a systematic typology of the frames (claims or arguments) found in the alcohol policy literature. This study, funded by CRUK, will facilitate systematic framing analysis of future bodies of data such as consultation responses etc. and training/education on this issue.   I am interested in how financial conflicts of interest affect science and practice in public health, and have done work focused on nalmefene (a drug for alcohol dependence); and on understanding how researchers view conflicts of interest and how they should managed. 

I am open to collaboration with others interested in taking forward research in these fields, or to prospective research students interested in any of these issues.

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