MRC Epidemiology Unit
On 28 March 2025, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) published a new framework for evaluating population health and health system interventions as natural experiments.
The framework was developed by a team of researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter and Glasgow, who included Unit scientists Professor David Ogilvie and Professor Martin White.
Studies involving natural experiments capitalise on situations and events that create different groups within society, allowing researchers to observe the effects of the changes both on groups and individuals. The new framework furthers previous guidance and shows how the new approaches to evaluating complex interventions can be applied in natural experimental studies.
Unit Director Professor Nick Wareham, Chair of the MRC Population Health Sciences Group (PHSG), commented:
This new framework is very welcome. I hope it encourages the population health research community – researchers, policymakers and practitioners – to make full use of the opportunities natural experiments provide to produce and apply the best possible evidence to support decision-making.”