Sharon Cox
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sharoncox.bsky.social
Sharon Cox
@sharoncox.bsky.social
Behavioural Scientist at @ucl-targ.bsky.social. Deputy Director @Behaviourresuk.bsky.social Health inequalities, social policy, nicotine, tobacco, some ontologies. AI explorer. Runner, runt, wannabe cyclist.
Pinned
This starter pack is the beginning of a collection of people who run major @ukri.org and civil service projects across the sciences and humanities- follow us and let me know if you want to join us!

go.bsky.app/3HUp1di
Reposted by Sharon Cox
📣 Introducing new funding schemes from the SSA and Office for Life Sciences tinyurl.com/mrxwrh8k | Applications for PhD studentships and fellowships open on 3 November
October 27, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
🌟 Discover how behavioural insights drive policy improvements in health, sustainability, and safety! Join the BR-UK Research Showcase webinar to explore key findings from 5 cross-disciplinary projects. Don’t miss out!
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
September 22, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
30 years of tracking hunger in America—gone. The Trump admin says it’s ‘politicized.’ ✨

If you don’t count it, it doesn’t exist, right? shorturl.at/s6aDU #ablueSky #MedSky #NewsSky #NurseSky
Exclusive | Trump Administration Cancels Annual Hunger Survey
The government has been measuring food insecurity since the mid-1990s but now says the report has become “overly politicized.”
shorturl.at
September 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
📢 Join us for our October webinar, the BR-UK Research Showcase! Gain insight into findings from each of the five BR-UK projects, followed by a Q&A session and discussion. Register now: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
September 12, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
New in @addictionjournal.bsky.social , we find adults who smoke cigarettes non-daily tend to be more motivated to quit smoking than those who smoke every day, especially among older and less advantaged people.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Associations between non‐daily smoking and motivation to stop smoking: A population study in England 2021–2024
Background and aims An increasing proportion of adults in England who smoke cigarettes do not smoke every day and may see quitting smoking as less important than those who smoke daily. This study ai...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
🚀 Our Accelerator Proposals are still open for applications! Perfect for early career researchers seeking funding, secure up to £50,000 for innovative research projects.🌟
Take your ideas to the next level,apply by the 12th August.
Find out more via the link below #FundingOpportunity
bit.ly/4lF7jKJ
August 4, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
🧬 Long COVID and inequality

A major US study finds that social determinants of health (like poverty, food insecurity, and medical discrimination) double or triple the risk of long COVID.

🔗 doi.org/10.7326/ANNA...

#SciComm #LongCOVID #HealthEquity 🧪
Social Determinants of Health and Risk for Long COVID in the U.S. RECOVER-Adult Cohort | Annals of Internal Medicine
Background: Social determinants of health (SDoH) contribute to disparities in SARS-CoV-2 infection, but their associations with long COVID are unknown. Objective: To determine associations between SDo...
doi.org
July 30, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
The SRNT-E 2025 conference programme is now online! 🎉

See what we've got lined up here: srnt-e.org/conference/2...

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Romania!
July 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
Among people who use heroin, tobacco smoking and illegal drugs cause a similar number of premature deaths buff.ly/tIC0Fqp @danlewer.bsky.social @tattanbirch.bsky.social @sharoncox.bsky.social
buff.ly
July 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
We did some life table modelling among people who use heroin. Tobacco smoking causes as many premature deaths in this group as illegal drugs. Yet public health policies overlook smoking: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... New research with @sharoncox.bsky.social @tattanbirch.bsky.social
July 18, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
📊 Project Proposals Open! Up to £300,000 for behavioural research projects on AI, knowledge integration, & explaining variation in effective interventions. EOIs due July 31st. 🌟 #ResearchFunding #BRUK
Commissioning Fund | Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) | Usher Institute
Information about the Fund and how to apply
usher.ed.ac.uk
July 1, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
🔍 Are you an early career behavioural researcher? Our Accelerator proposals offer up to £50,000 for innovative projects! 💡 Perfect for kickstarting your research journey. Applications open July 1st—closing August 12th, 2025. Get ready to apply! #ECR #Innovation #BRUKFunding
BR-UK Commissioning Fund To Launch | Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) | Usher Institute
BR-UK’S Commissioning Fund will open to applications on July 1st, 2025.
usher.ed.ac.uk
June 27, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
'lockdowns had unequal impacts. But the epidemic itself did too, even in the absence of lockdown.... Among people of working age in Sweden, those in the lowest income tertile were five times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in the highest.'
New piece on why it’s unhelpful to characterise COVID debate as ‘lockdowns are bad’ vs ‘lockdowns are good’ when it was really about people who claimed that COVID was 100x less fatal than it was + optimal to have a massive epidemic immediately before vaccine… vs those who sense checked these claims.
Restrictions had unequal impacts, but the pandemic itself did too. - Boston Review
Adam Kucharski responds to Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee.
www.bostonreview.net
June 20, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
Desperately sad to learn of the death of Peter Krykant, an indomitable campaigner who brought Scotland's drugs deaths crisis into the light and kept it there, and without whom The Thistle, the UK's first legal drugs consumption room, would not exist
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Why I decided to run the UK’s first drug consumption van | Peter Krykant
I cannot stand back and allow governments to be complicit in allowing people to die, says drugs policy campaigner Peter Krykant
www.theguardian.com
June 11, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
New Addiction Audio: Emma Beard talks to Tsen Vei Lim about her research. Podcast: buff.ly/wsvnUda Article: buff.ly/UcLuk67
Hidden populations in household surveys on smoking prevalence with Emma Beard | Addiction Audio
The podcast from the journal Addiction
buff.ly
June 6, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
New pre-print - the first empirical study of the 2024 summer riots, case studies of Bristol, Stoke, & Tamworth detailing the sequence of events, who was involved, and targets

Funded by @ukri.org

www.qeios.com/read/17ASAP
May 21, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
Policies that target the packaging, appearance, and marketing of e-cigarettes appear much more popular among vapers than those targeting price or the types of devices and flavours that can be sold.
May 14, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Such a lot of work went into this, bravo to the team and please do join the webinar if you can, each of them great speakers and have important insights and learning from these events 👇🏼
You can now sign up for our June webinar on 'Understanding the 2024 English riots: Insights into social unrest and racial dynamics'.
📅 Taking place on the 10th of June 2025 at 11am.
Sign up via the link below! us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
May 16, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
How much does the absence of the ‘hidden population’ from United Kingdom household surveys underestimate smoking prevalence? buff.ly/cCYCYMC Emma Beard @lionshahab.bsky.social @jamiebrown.bsky.social @sharoncox.bsky.social
May 13, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Go to this, Sarah is a seriously brilliant communicator of smoking and vaping research
Interested in smoking and vaping? I will be giving a UCL Lunch Hour Lecture covering lots of our recent research findings in this area.

The lecture will take place online on 29 May, 1-2pm. It’s free and all are welcome to attend. You can register here: www.ucl.ac.uk/events/event...
Lunch Hour Lecture | Recent trends in smoking and vaping in England
The talk will include an overview of changes in the prevalence and patterns of smoking and vaping...
www.ucl.ac.uk
May 7, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
Interested in smoking and vaping? I will be giving a UCL Lunch Hour Lecture covering lots of our recent research findings in this area.

The lecture will take place online on 29 May, 1-2pm. It’s free and all are welcome to attend. You can register here: www.ucl.ac.uk/events/event...
Lunch Hour Lecture | Recent trends in smoking and vaping in England
The talk will include an overview of changes in the prevalence and patterns of smoking and vaping...
www.ucl.ac.uk
May 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
Modeling the Impact of Vaping: What We Need to Know and Which Methods to Use

Commentary by Lion Shahab

academic.oup.com/ntr/article/... @lionshahab.bsky.social
March 18, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Sharon Cox
Important analysis, led by Dr Emma Beard, showing that absolute smoking rates in the UK are likely underestimated by more than 1% as surveys do not capture disadvantaged, hidden populations. doi.org/10.1111/add.... @jamiebrown.bsky.social @sharoncox.bsky.social
May 2, 2025 at 9:20 AM
New blog from me for @behaviourresuk.bsky.social

Can we overcome the challenges of making qualitative research more open?

Yes!👇

With thanks to: @adam42smith.bsky.social @beckibooks.bsky.social @profalexstevens.bsky.social for their input to our recent webinar

usher.ed.ac.uk/behavioural-...
Ethics, Transparency, And Trust: A Call For More Open Science In Qualitative Research
In this blog, Dr Sharon Cox (BR-UK Deputy Director) expands on the challenges and possible solutions when adopting an open science approach to qualitative research.
usher.ed.ac.uk
April 16, 2025 at 1:43 PM