Dr Hannah Durrant

Dr Hannah Durrant is a Senior Research Fellow and Programme Director at the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP). Hannah leads WCPP’s work on community wellbeing, generating relevant and impactful evidence for Welsh Government, public service and community leaders on mobilising community action to meet need and enhance social connection. She also leads the Centre’s research and practice on knowledge mobilisation and evidence-based policymaking.

Recent projects that Hannah has led include:

• A programme of work on the role of communities, volunteering and multisector collaboration in enhancing wellbeing, to inform the work of the Resourceful Communities Partnership and wider public and third sector leaders across Wales.
• A major review of evidence on loneliness inequality and analysis of data on loneliness in Wales to inform national and local loneliness interventions.
• Research on blending online and offline approaches to community wellbeing services, to support service provision and digital public service and inclusion strategy.

She has also recently published an open access article on Improving evidence use: a systematic scoping review of local models of knowledge mobilisation in the Journal of Evidence & Policy.

Hannah has a background in leading and mobilising research to inform policy and public service. Previously she oversaw the research programme of the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath and led a number of co-produced projects on the use of linked data to inform policy and public service provision at the local level, public engagement, social prescribing, social care, and skills and workforce development policy.

She is Vice Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.