John Wright established and leads the Bradford Institute for Health Research and Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, working to speed up translation of health research into practice and policy. He set up the Born in Bradford (BiB) following the lives of over 60,000 children and parents. Evidence from BiB studies has informed local, national international policies. He leads Connected Bradford developing one of the richest datasets in the UK covering 600,000 individuals and the ActEarly programme to develop a people-powered, whole systems City Collaboratory approach to improving the health and life chances of children from deprived communities.

He has worked to develop sustainable public health programmes in Africa for 30 years and has reported for the BBC on programmes covering Born in Bradford, Ebola and most recently The NHS Frontline podcast.