On March 24th, 2025, the University of Limerick’s Physical Activity for Health Research Centre hosted a unique webinar titled "Policy research in physical activity, physical education, and sport: Shared goals, diverse approaches." This event was organised in collaboration with the International Society for Physical Activity and Behavioral Nutrition’s (ISBNPA) Special Interest Group “Policies and Environments”.
The webinar, chaired by Prof. Catherine Woods, featured insightful presentations from three speakers. In her introduction, she emphasized the importance of upstream approaches to modify the physical activity behaviour, and introduced the speakers. She also highlighted that each of the presented projects was funded by a prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship, the European Union’s flagship program for the postdoctoral training of researchers.
Dr. Sven Messing (University of Limerick, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) presented on "Co-designing a Physical Activity Policy Toolkit with policymakers from EU member states" (PLATO). He highlighted the importance of comparing and assessing existing monitoring and evaluation tools for public policies; his final toolkit will aim to contribute to bridging the gap between (physical activity) science and policy.
Dr. Aurelie van Hoye (University of Limerick, Université de Lorraine) shared results from her fellowship on "Co-creating the Health-Promoting Sports Federation implementation guide." Her work focused on the role of sports clubs in the implementation of policies, and identified a gap between the perceived importance of health promotion topics and their actual integration into sport development plans.
Dr. Jenna Lorusso (University of Limerick) talked about "Co-creating a preparatory policy engagement programme for quality physical education" (PEP-4-QPE). She emphasised the critical role of policy in physical education and the importance of building the capacity of physical education stakeholders to engage in policy efforts. Her policy engagement programme is published as an open educational resource (link).
The webinar highlighted several important themes, including the interdisciplinary nature of policy research, the need for collaboration between researchers and policymakers, and the significance of developing practical tools and guidelines. The presentations showcased diverse approaches to policy research, addressing public policies of governments as well as organizational policies within sport clubs and schools.
For more information on future events, please visit the University of Limerick's Physical Activity for Health Research Centre website. www.ul.ie/ehs/pafh