The Physical Activity for Health Research Centre (PAfH) was established in 2019 by Professor Alan Donnelly as a result of funding from the Health Research Institute, UL.  Its vision is to be ‘world leaders in PAfH research and excellence, with real-world impact in policy and practice’ and its mission is ‘to build an interdisciplinary international hub of research excellence and impact’, located at UL but with global reach. 

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PAfH has three pillars: 1) Research Excellence and Impact, 2) Internationalisation and Visibility and 3) Capacity Building and Collaboration.  It has five thematic areas, namely measurement and determinants of physical activity (PA); biomedicine of PA; PA and Exercise is Medicine; Interventions and Policy; Active and Sustainable mobility.  

PAfH has 13 core members, comprising senior, mid- and early-career researchers. For more information on the PAfH members, divided into core, research staff, postgraduates and associate members see our 'members' page.

PAfH has established multiple research collaborations across its five thematic areas, spanning the globe.  Two examples of PAfH-led international research collaborations include: 

  1. The Determinants of Physical Activity in Settings (DEPASS) Cost Action, led by PAfH core member Prof. Ciaran Mac Donncha has 327 participants from 487 countries (for more details see: DE-PASS MASTER_May2023.xlsx and Home • DE-PASS | COST ACTION CA19101 (depass.eu))
  2. The Policy Evaluation Network, a Joint Programme Initiative, for which Prof. Woods is deputy co-ordinator, includes 28 research centres across eight European countries and New Zealand (for more details see: Partners - JPI PEN (jpi-pen.eu)). 
  1. PAfH’s 13 core members comprise multiple disciplines, schools and faculties across UL.  PAfH is a mix of senior, mid and early career researchers, has five thematic areas and operates across three pillars. 
  2. PAfH employs 9 Research Staff, a mix of post-doctoral researchers and research assistants working on externally funded projects. PAfH core members are primary supervisors of 25+ PhD research students, all conducting state of the art research in PAfH thematic areas. 
  3. PAfH core members consistently publish >3.6% of all UL peer-reviewed publications (2021 = 84 publications, >2500 citations, 3.6% UL output; 2022 = 61 publications, 3.8% UL output; Ref: Scopus).  In 2023, PAfH published 61 peer-reviewed articles (3.5% of all articles published at UL), which were cited 161 times during 2023 (year of publication).  These articles had a field-weighted citation impact of 1.71 compared to 1.21 for UL; 18% of these articles were in Top 10% Citation Percentiles; 59% of these were published in Q1 journals based on CiteScore; 36.8% of these were published in Top 10% Journals based on CiteScore Percentile. 
  4. PAfH has hosted 3 international conferences (2022: IADMS Home | International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (iadms.org), 650+; 2023: ICDAM https://www.ul.ie/ehs/pafh/events/international-conference-on-diet-and-activity-methods-icdam-2023, 300+; 2024 IBEC Home | International Research Group on Biochemistry of Exercise 340+, attracting excellent international speakers, all travelling to UL.  PAfH, with Healthy UL, will host the 2025 IHPCN Conference — IHPCN (healthpromotingcampuses.org).  National and international delegates (> 500) are expected to travel to  the University of Limerick. 
  5. PAfH’s international webinar series attracted online registrations from 100-400+ attendees per session, and in-person attendees from multiple disciplines, institutions and areas (2020-2023). 
  6. PAfH supports the Irish Physical Activity Research Collaboration (www.i-parc.ie; see support letter 1), Exercise is Medicine® Ireland National Centre (see support letter 2) & Disability Ireland (see support letter 3), among other organisations associated with physical activity and public health.​
  7. PAfH was sought by the World Health Organisation to provide ‘technical knowledge and expertise on physical activity’ to Government representatives from 27 EU countries in 2022 & 2024.​
  8. PAfH’s international summer & winter training schools in 2022, 2023 were fully booked and attracted junior and experienced researchers from Ireland, Europe and South America PAfH Winter School – ‘Policy and Intervention Implementation Evaluation’ | University of Limerick (ul.ie). 

 

[1] IADMS: Home | International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (iadms.org)

[2] ICDAM: International Conference on Diet and Activity Methods 2020 (icdamportal.org)