AWRC Voices: Elevating Place-Based Approaches on the Global Stage – My Experience at ISBNPA 2024
In this month’s AWRC voices, Dr Harriet Wingfield reflects on her experience presenting her work on place-based approaches at the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) conference in Omaha, USA.
Addressing physical activity inequalities is a priority advocated by the World Health Organization and several national governments, yet there remains a significant gap in the practical application and evaluation of these approaches. The challenge lies in operationalising whole systems and place-based strategies effectively. Developing a clear, alternative explanatory framework is essential to guide local authorities and organisations in accumulating knowledge and driving impactful change.
As part of my role with Sport England’s National Evaluation and Learning Partnership, I collaborated with our research team at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) to help develop a shared conceptual framework and appropriate research methods for implementing and understanding change in place-based systemic work. My specific responsibility has been to work with various local collaboratives across England, helping them operationalise this pioneering framework. Through this hands-on experience, I have gained confidence in the framework’s potential to support meaningful change at the local level.
Recognising the importance of sharing this contribution to global knowledge, our team submitted multiple abstracts to international conferences. By successfully securing Hallam Impact Funding, I had the opportunity to present our work at the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) conference in Omaha, USA, in May 2024.
The conference was a dynamic and intellectually stimulating environment, where I, along with my colleagues Dr. Katie Shearn, Dr. Gareth Jones, and Louis Ryan, engaged with leading academics from around the world. On the third day, I presented our explanatory framework to an audience of over 40 academics, each with a shared interest in tackling physical activity inequalities. The response was very positive, with numerous attendees approaching me afterward to express their enthusiasm and inquire further about our work. This not only raised the profile of our research at SHU but also significantly boosted my confidence as a researcher, particularly in communicating complex concepts to a diverse audience.
The ISBNPA conference also provided a unique opportunity to network with other professionals in the field. Using the conference web app, I proactively reached out to and arranged meetings with researchers from Australia, Portugal, The Netherlands, and the UK. Although coordinating these meetings amidst a busy schedule was challenging, the connections I made were invaluable. For example, ongoing conversations with a Portuguese academic have already led to her joining a collaborative European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action grant application group that I am co-leading.
On the final evening of the conference, I arranged an informal dinner with Kanako and Yuko, our Japanese colleagues from Keio University, with whom we’ve been collaborating over the past few months. Meeting face-to-face in Omaha provided a great opportunity to deepen our working relationship and discuss future funding bids and collaborative projects focused on evaluation and learning. This experience has left me excited about the potential for our framework to extend beyond the UK, enhancing its cultural transferability and relevance in an international context.
Sharing insights from our groundbreaking work at SHU as part of Sport England’s National Evaluation and Learning Partnership on a global stage allowed me to elevate both my profile in the field and the reputation of our research team. The connections forged at ISBNPA 2024 have already begun to bear fruit, and I am confident that these international collaborations will continue to strengthen our work and broaden the impact of place-based approaches to tackling physical activity inequalities.