Thursday, 7 September 2023
Established in 2019, funded by the Health Research Institute, the Physical Activity for Health Research Centre (PAfH) is now an internationally renowned hub of excellence in PAfH research.
- PAfH’s 10 core members comprise multiple disciplines, departments and schools.
- PAfH has 9 Research Staff, 28 Postgraduate Students and 36 Associate Members.
- PAfH core members are principal investigators on 9 international (Horizon, Joint Programme Initiative, Cost Action) and 9 national (HRB, SFI, IRC, SEAI, HSE) research grants, and collaborators on many more.
- PAfH has generated over €5.9 million to UL & the HRI (€10 million total grant income), this is a 24-fold return on HRI investment. A success rate of 35%, 45% and 70% from 2020-2022 respectively.
- 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).
- PAfH hosted 2 international conferences (2022: IADMS, 650+; 2023: ICDAM, 300+) and will host the International Biochemistry of Exercise Conference in 2024.
- PAfH’s successful international webinar series attracted online registrations from 100-400+ attendees per session, and in-person attendees from multiple disciplines, institutions and areas.
- PAfH supports Exercise is Medicine® Ireland National Centre & the Irish Physical Activity Research Collaboration (www.I-PARC.ie).
- 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.
- PAfH launched its international summer & winter training schools in autumn 2022. These fully booked schools attracted junior and experienced researchers from Ireland, Europe and South America.