Time: 08:00 – 12:30 – Session 1A
           13:00 – 16:30 – Session 1B
(Please note that this workshop needs to be booked as morning and afternoon separately)

Title: Network of Early Career Researchers and Students of ISBNPA (NESI) workshop

Room: Health North 228

Facilitators:

• Sarah Shaw, University of Southampton
• Dr Steph Chappel, Central Queensland University

Brief Description:

This workshop is for early career researchers (ECRs) and students who are interested in advancing their career development and enhancing their research networks. The workshop is structured in two half day sessions, providing participants with the option to register for either a half-day session or the full day. 

The morning workshop will focus on how to create a competitive academic CV and job application. The session is targeted to students and ECRs and will include interactive activities and talks from senior academics in the field of behavioural nutrition and physical activity. 

The afternoon workshop will focus on grant writing. This session is targeted to students approaching the end of their PhD, and ECRs who are thinking about applying for their own research funding. The session will be conducted by academics who have experience in securing research funding and will include interactive group activities.   

Throughout the two sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to network with other researchers at different stages of their career through “speed dating” style sessions and opportunities to practice CV and grant writing through “hands-on” group activities.

The workshop will be structured in two half-day sessions focused on

• building an academic CV and applying for jobs and
• grant writing.

These topics have been selected based on feedback from previous NESI workshops. Participants will be given the option to register for either session (half day registration) or both (full day registration). Both sessions will have multiple opportunities to network with fellow attendees which is something that NESI members have frequently flagged as missing during the 2020 and 2021 online conferences. These networking sessions will be semi-structured to encourage attendees to interact with as many other individuals as possible, e.g., speaking with someone at the same career stage or using a similar data collection method. 

Session 1 

The morning session will focus on providing participants with the opportunity to learn how to develop an academic CV and apply for a job. Example topics include what information to include in your academic CV and how best to structure it, what employers and funders are looking for in your academic CV and application, and when is the best time to start preparing a CV A large proportion of the workshop will be dedicated to group activities. Throughout the session, attendees will have several opportunities to network with fellow students and ECRs as well as mid-career researchers (MCRs) and senior researchers. 

Session 2

The afternoon session will focus on providing participants with the opportunity to learn how to write a competitive academic grant application. This will include topics such as what reviewers are looking for, how much time to dedicate to writing a grant, and some practical tips and tricks. In this session a large proportion of the workshop will also be dedicated to group activities, and multiple opportunities to network will be provided.  

The workshop will be chaired by Dr Steph Chappel, Sarah Shaw, and other NESI committee members who will work together to organize the program and run the workshop on the day (i.e., introducing speakers, ensuring the workshop runs to time, and facilitating discussion). Dr Simone Verswijveren (student representative on the ISBNPA executive committee; NESI chair), Dr Jenna Hollis and Dr Inês Santos (ECR representatives on the ISBNPA executive committee) will provide an overview of NESI and the NESI networking activities at the conference (e.g., NESI zone, ECR dinner), and will share information on the ISBNPA mentoring scheme. Presenters will include ISBNPA fellows, established and mid-career researchers, and ECRs from a variety of countries, career stages, and career pathways. The NESI committee have an established track record of securing renowned speakers working in behavioral nutrition and physical activity research.   Previous workshops have included the following experienced speakers: Dr. Michael Beets, Dr Penny Love, Prof Anna Timperio, Prof Stewart Trost, Prof David Crawford and Prof Kylie Ball.

Time: 08:00 – 12:30

Title: Natural experiments for physical activity research: creating competitive study designs to better evaluate environmental changes

Room: Health North 105

Facilitators:

• Marilyn Wende, Baylor University
• Morgan Hughey, College of Charleston
• Renée Umstattd Meyer, Baylor University
• Aaron Hipp, North Carolina State University

Brief Description:

This workshop will create a forum for the exchange of ideas among those interested in conducting natural experimental research focused on behavioral community outcomes. Specifically, it will cover key aspects of study design, theoretical frameworks, methodological/analytical approaches, common biases, and application to research on physical activity. 

We will present an overview of natural experiments, and then four natural experiment study examples from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States to illustrate the scope and diversity of evaluation of naturally occurring events. Examples will highlight the myriad barriers and facilitators to successfully researching the impact of large-scale infrastructure changes on community-level physical activity outcomes. For the last section of the workshop, audience members will have the opportunity to outline their own natural experiment grant proposals by applying the considerations highlighted in the first part of the workshop. Participants will be asked to share their ideas throughout this section of the workshop and ask questions about how to create competitive research aims and identify important “naturally occurring events” to evaluate.

By the end of the session participants will be introduced to important aspects of natural experiment study designs and have the opportunity to apply the learned ideas to their own research.

Time: 08:00 – 12:30

Title: Using Directed Acyclic Graphs to guide your research: an introduction, exercises and interactive discussions

Room: Health North 107

Facilitators:

• Louise Poppe, Ghent University
• Jelle Van Cauwenberg, Ghent University
• Annick De Paepe, Ghent University

Brief Description:

Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) allow researchers to summarize expert knowledge and a priori assumptions in an intuitive way. In a DAG the assumed causal structure between variables of interest is visualized in a diagram. By developing a DAG researchers are forced to visualize the relation between the exposure (e.g. physical activity) and the outcome (e.g. sleep) as well as potential confounders (e.g. fatigue). Hence, DAGs are powerful tools to guide the research design, the data collection as well as the data-analysis. Furthermore, by articulating the assumptions of the research question, DAGs enhance communication between researchers from different domains.

The workshop will start with an introduction to DAGs and their use in health promotion research. Exercises of increasing complexity will be provided and discussed. After the theoretical part, the instructors will present and discuss DAGs that were recently developed within their team. Finally, participants will be divided into groups (of approximately 4 persons) based on their research interests (e.g. nutrition research). Within each group, a research question of one of the team members will be translated into a DAG. At the end of the workshop each group will present the developed DAG during a short presentation followed by a discussion with all attendees.

The workshop will consist of four components:

1. Theoretical introduction (1 hour)
2. Exercises on pre-formulated research questions + group discussion (45 minutes)
3. Examples of DAGs developed by the workshop organizers (45 minutes)
4. Exercises on participants’ own research questions + group discussion (1 hour)

First, a theoretical introduction will be provided. The introduction will start with clarifying the distinction between associational and causal analysis and the urgent need for the latter. Then, the practical use of DAGs to formulate causal questions will be explained. Participants will learn the difference between different types of variables in DAGs (e.g., confounders, colliders and mediators) and how DAGs can guide the research design, the data collection as well as the data-analysis. Free software to develop DAGs (dagitty.net) will be introduced. 

Second, exercises of increasing complexity focusing on different research themes and health behaviors will be provided. These exercises will be solved using ‘dagitty.net’ and potential solutions will be discussed in group. 

Third, after the theoretical introduction, DAGs developed within the research team of the organizers will be discussed. Louise Poppe investigates the causal effect of physical activity on older adults’ daily cognitive performance and the role of often proposed mediators, such as sleep and mental wellbeing, in the PA-cognition association. She will present her DAG representing the assumed causal structure between the variables of interest developed based on literature and expert opinions. Jelle Van Cauwenberg will present the development of a DAG for a research project on the characteristics of public open spaces influencing older adults’ acute emotional states and how this relates to (active) use of public open spaces and long-term mental health outcomes. Participants will be encouraged to actively provide feedback on the presented DAGs and to propose potential adaptations to the DAGs.

Finally, in the last part of the session, participants will be divided into groups (of approximately 4 persons) based on their research interests (e.g., nutrition research). Within each group, a research question of one of the team members will be translated into a DAG. By doing so, we aim to facilitate networking opportunities between the participants. At the end of the workshop each group will present the developed DAG during a short presentation followed by a discussion with all attendees

Time: 08:00 – 12:30

Title: Evaluating implementation of public policy for the promotion of physical activity and healthy nutrition:  Why, how and what should this involve.

Room: Health North 440

Facilitators:

• Catherine Woods, University of Limerick
• Nicole Den Braver (UVMc)
• Janas Harrington (UCC)
• Jeroen Lakerveld, VUmc
• Sarah Forberger, Leibniz-Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS
• Rebecca Lee, Arizona State University

Brief Description:

Urban cities host over half the world’s population and their growth is projected to increase in the foreseeable future. Within these urbanised food and physical activity (PA) systems, promoting health enhancing behaviours and sustainability is challenging. Indeed, the UN Sustainable Development Goals blueprint highlights the need to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. A need to move beyond the individual behaviour change to broader policy or systems-based approaches is needed. For Governments, the concept of a ‘best buy’ in public health interventions is associated with evidence of effectiveness, rationale for need and applicability to the target population. Yet, in public sector policy the concept of a ‘best buy’ is far from clear. Indeed, the ‘best buy’ indicators (from a scientific perspective) may not be politically relevant (due to context) and/or difficult to obtain. The aim of this workshop is to share the learnings from the Policy Evaluation Network on examining public policy development, implementation and evaluation in food and PA. This workshop will explore the tensions that exist in identifying policy ‘best buys’, the impact of different stakeholder perspectives’ on agreeing ‘best buys’, and the associated issues of implementation and monitoring for accountability at city and national levels. “This workshop will share the learnings of several global initiatives focused on the potential for public policies to improve population levels of physical activity and healthy nutrition. To begin the workshop our experts will give presentations from the EU Policy Evaluation Network (https://www.jpi-pen.eu/), INFORMAS (https://www.informas.org/)  and others designed to advance our understanding of the potential for policy. Next we will present strategies by which we can provide actionable knowledge for policy makers to create healthier physical activity and food environments to promote a health, via policies that are good for the planet, publically acceptable, and good for the economy. The team of experts will provide tailored feedback to the small groups as their ideas are flourishing, and drawing on examples from physical activity and food policy, participants: 

• Explore recent rapid developments in physical activity national and local policy development, and learn from the successes and challenges of the globally relevant food policy examples; 
• Explore the tensions that exist in developing and implementing physical activity/Food policy. 
• Review indicators and methods for monitoring accountability. 
• Participants will discuss opportunities to influence local food and physical activity policy to follow best practice in developing a healthy, sustainable, and resilient system which underpins national and international policies. 

Time: 08:00 – 12:30

Title: Capacity Building Network workshop: Heterogeneity and variability: the devil or the holy grail in longitudinal data analysis of physical activity and behavioral nutrition data?  

Room: Health North 220

Facilitators:

• Trynke Hoekstra, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Borja del Pozo Cruz, University of Southern Denmark

Brief Description:

Please join us for the Capacity Building Network (CBN) half-day workshop at the 2022 ISBNPA Annual Meeting. The CBN is a rebranded committee replacing the former Mid-Career Committee (MCN), that aims to support the needs of (self-selected) mid-career members of ISBNPA. In addition, CBN aims to identify the unique perspective of mid-career and locate opportunities for education, funding, mentorship and networking. Also, CBN aims to provide a representative voice for mid-career members of ISBNPA, identify, recruit and retain potential members, facilitate communication between members and to collaborate across ISBNPA committees for education, networking and membership opportunities. Ultimately,  CBN is an opportunity to facilitate the natural transition from early career to senior/leadership positions. CBN focuses on six main themes; management and leadership, networking, research methodology and analytical techniques, science advocacy and impact.

This workshop focuses on the themes of research and science advocacy, specifically related to the handling and analysis of within- and/or between participant variation and heterogeneity. We will introduce, explain and highlight various examples of the modelling of sample variability using physical activity and/or nutritional data. Examples of such techniques are mixed models (modelling fixed and random effects), latent class growth models (modelling subgroups with distinct trajectories over time) and the analysis of day/month to day/month variability (e.g. in the case of ecological momentary assessment). ” “Please join us for the Capacity Building Network (CBN) half-day workshop at the 2022 ISBNPA Annual Meeting. The CBN is a rebranded committee replacing the former Mid-Career Committee (MCN), that aims to support the needs of (self-selected) mid-career members of ISBNPA. In addition, CBN aims to identify the unique perspective of mid-career and locate opportunities for education, funding, mentorship and networking. Also, CBN aims to provide a representative voice for mid-career members of ISBNPA, identify, recruit and retain potential members, facilitate communication between members and to collaborate across ISBNPA committees for education, networking and membership opportunities. Ultimately,  CBN is an opportunity to facilitate the natural transition from early career to senior/leadership positions. CBN focuses on six main themes; management and leadership, networking, research methodology and analytical techniques, science advocacy and impact.

This workshop focuses on the themes of research and science advocacy, specifically related to the handling and analysis of within- and/or between participant variation and heterogeneity. We will introduce, explain and highlight various examples of the modelling of sample variability using physical activity and/or nutritional data. Examples of such techniques are mixed models (modelling fixed and random effects), latent class growth models (modelling subgroups with distinct trajectories over time) and the analysis of day/month to day/month variability (e.g. in the case of ecological momentary assessment).

We will provide hands-on training, walking through examples of various applications for longitudinal data analysis including when and how variability in your data can be informative, and also how to model within individual changes in behaviour against (health) outcomes. Methods will be explained in the context of real world research questions and syntaxes using open source software will be provided. There will be ample room for discussion and questions The workshop is open to early- mid- or senior career participants who have a basic knowledge of regression models.  

The Capacity Building Network will be officially launched at the conference.” Half-day 5-30 The Capacity Building Network is a new committee within ISBNPA and this is the first conference where the committee will be hosting a workshop at (originally we had plans to launch in Auckland). Individually, the participants have contributed to various workshops, symposia and presentations in past conferences.