PRC for Physical Activity and Nutrition (PRC-PAN) 2019 Annual Report Named Research Investigators: Professor Ron Plotnikoff Professor Mitch Duncan Professor Clare Collins Professor Erica James (0.5FTE) Professor Philip Morgan Associate Professor Tracy Burrows Professor Robin Callister Dr Melinda Hutchesson Professor Manohar Garg Associate Professor Ben Dascombe Professor David Lubans (0.8FTE) Key Highlights from 2019 Grants/scholarship • 24 externally-funded grants awarded/commenced totalling over $6.7 million with 5 x Category 1 grants (including ARC, NHMRC and Heart Foundation), 3 x Category 2 grants, and 16 x Category 3 grants. Notable grants included: • Daughters and Dads: Active and Empowered receiving $2.4 million from Office of Sport NSW for rollout of program throughout NSW • A/Prof Tracy Burrows being awarded a 5-year NHMRC Investigator Grant $1.55million • Professor David Lubans commenced 5-year NHMRC Research fellowship $734K Publications • 175 unique publications [co-]authored by our 11 Named Research Investigators. HDR students • 14 HDR completions supervised by our 11 Named Research Investigators • 57 current HDR students being supervised by our 11 Named Research Investigators Awards to PRCPAN staff and students • Prof Clare Collins - Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Services (AAHMS) - Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA) - Community Acknowledgement of Research Excellence Hunter Children’s Research Foundation (HCRF) • Dr Myles Young - BUPA Foundation’s Emerging Health Researcher Award for 2019 • Dr Jordan Smith - ACHPER international conference Early Career Researcher award & 1st prize in 2019's philanthropic, peer-reviewed, funding from HMRI • Prof Dave Lubans - One of Clarivate’s most highly cited researchers of 2019 • Prof Clare Collins – 2019 national field leader for research in Nutrition Science, calculated from publicly available data over the last 5 years for ‘The Australian - Higher Education Research Supplement • Prof Philip Morgan - ISBNPA Best paper Award for the Children and Families Specialist Interest Group • PhD student Anna Rayward - ISBNPA Best Presentation Award for the e & mHealth Specialist Interest Group • Dr Lisa Vincze was awarded the Dr Dave Roberts Memorial Award in Food and Nutritional Science. Awarded based on high academic merit to a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Nutrition and Dietetics; supported by International Life Sciences Institute SEA Region Asia. Key Highlights from 2019 (continued…) UON Awards • Emma Pollock and Maria Murphy - UON Finalists for 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) and winners of the Faculty of Education and Arts 3MT awards. • Angus Leahy - Winner of FEDUA Research Higher Degree Research Excellence Award • Natasha Whyte and Ilyse Jones - FEDUA Dean's Excellence Award Events • PRCPAN hosted 11 Public Seminars with international collaborators • PRCPAN hosted 2 research seminar series • PRCPAN held 2 staff and student Forums • PRCPAN hosted 3 stalls at the HMRI Open Day in October 2019 showcasing Nutrition and Physical Activity and PRCPAN activities. • PRCPAN Nutrition and Dietetics researchers (Dr Rebecca Haslam, Dr Kirrilly Pursey, Dr Lee Ashton, Dr Jessica Ferguson, Dr Kerith Duncanson, Dr Emma Beckett, Dr Megan Whatnall & Dr Jacklyn Jackson) organised the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA) 2019 national conference in Newcastle from 2-5 December 2019. The event attracted over 270 delegates from nutrition, public health, policy, animal and science backgrounds. Other 2019 achievements • Promotions – Lesley Macdonald-Wicks and Mitch Duncan both promoted to Associate Professors. • PRCPAN featured in Developing a Program of Research book which was published in 2019. Chapter 13 was co-authored by PRCPAN’s Director Ron Plotnikoff, together with the theme leaders and Centre Coordinator - Australia’s University of Newcastle’s Interdisciplinary, Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition: Our Ten-Year Journey (Ronald Plotnikoff, Clare Collins, Philip Morgan, Manohar Garg, Robin Callister, David Lubans, & Natasha Whyte). • In July 2019, Professor Clare Collins accepted the role of sole Editor in Chief of the Nutrition Journal. • Documentaries - Professor Clare Collins and Dr Rebecca Haslam featured on two episodes of ABC’s Ask the Doctor series - Food Part 1 & 2 in June/July 2019. PRCPAN’s Strategic Report on KPIs 1. Increase number and quality of peer-reviewed publications In 2019, our 11 Named Research Investigators1* [co-]authored 175 unique publications (source: NURO). By comparison in 2018, our 10 Named Research Investigators [co-]authored 136 unique journal articles. This represents a 22% increase in publications in 2019. To quantify the quality of our publications, we used both SJR Rank (Field Weighted Metrix) and SCImago (Quartile rating). In 2019, 59% of our 175 peer-reviewed journal articles had an SJR rank of >1 meaning these publications have been cited more than would be expected based on the world average for similar publications. 34% of our 175 peer-reviewed journal articles are ranked in the Top Quartile of journals in our fields. These fields include Nutrition and Dietetics; Sports Science; Medicine; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. PRC-PAN researchers aim to maintain or increase this percentage in the coming years. The quality of outputs is reflected by the ERA ratings of ‘5’ in 2012, 2015 and 2018 outcomes for Human Movement and Sports Science and Nutrition and Dietetics (our 6 PRC-PAN Theme Leaders are the major contributors to these ratings). 2. Attract high quality HDR candidates, mentor, and successfully complete studies in a timely manner with career pathways to Post-Doctoral opportunities Our 11 Named Research Investigators currently [co-]supervise 57 HDR students and completed 14 HDR students in 2019 which is over double last year’s graduates. Additionally, PRC-PAN researchers supervise many domestic Honours students to attract high quality PhD candidates to the Centre. The completed PhD students for 2019 were: Principal Name Title Co-Supervisor Supervisor Development and Evaluation of a Mobile Health Intervention to Improve Physical Beatrice Murawski Mitch Duncan Ron Plotnikoff Activity and Sleep Health in Adults: the Synergy Study Development and Evaluation of the ENRICH (Exercise and Nutrition Routine Improving Fiona Stacey Cancer Health) Healthy Lifestyle Program for Erica James David Lubans Cancer Survivors and Carers: A Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of Education Strategies to Megan Rollo Hannah Brown Optimise Nutrition and Dietary Knowledge in Clare Collins Tamara Bucher Pregnant Women 1 The PRCPAN Named researchers increased from 10 to 11 in 2019 with A/Prof Ben Dascombe returning to UON. A/Prof Dascombe was listed in the original PRC application but then worked interstate at another institution. Enhancing the Lipid-Lowering Potential of Jessica Ferguson Phytosterols in Hypercholesterolaemic Manohar Garg Individuals Nutrition's Role in the Management of Tracy Burrows Katherine Brain Clare Collins Chronic Pain Megan Rollo Long-chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Kylie Abbott Manohar Garg Tracy Burrows Acids, Sex Hormones, and Insulin Resistance Development and Evaluation of a Multicomponent Intervention to Improve Aerobic and Muscular Fitness Among Adults Magdalena Wilczynska Ron Plotnikoff David Lubans At-Risk of, or Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes: The ‘Ecofit’ Randomised Controlled Trial An Exploration of Low Doses of Exercise on Margaret Galloway Cardiorespiratory Fitness in People with Robin Callister Chronic Stroke The Development and Evaluation of a Brief Melinda Amanda Megan Whatnall Web-Based Nutrition Intervention for Young Hutchesson Patterson Adult University Students Enhancing the Efficacy of Task-Specific Sarah Valkenborghs Training on Upper Limb Motor Recovery Robin Callister after Stroke Barriers to Effective Educational Outcomes in Disadvantaged High School Communities and Ted Noon David Lubans the Impact of a Whole-Person Approach to Schooling Combined Somatosensory and Motor Urvashy (Sandie) Gopaul Training to Improve Upper Limb Recovery Robin Callister After Stroke The Relationship between Maternal Nutrition, Obesity or Diabetes in Pregnancy Yu Qi Lee Clare Collins and Offspring Kidney Structure and Function in an Indigenous Australian Population Differential Effects of Saturated Fatty Acids Nisha Panth of Varying Chain Length on Lipid Profiles in Manohar Garg (Masters student) Healthy Individuals Below are exemplars of the quality of our PRC-PAN students and graduates in 2019: • Li Kheng Chai was awarded the Jennie Thomas travel award; • Anna Rayward was awarded ISBNPA’s Best Presentation Award for the e-Health Special Interest Group; • Emma Pollock and Maria Murphy were nominated as finalists for the UoN 3-minute thesis; • Ryan Drew was awarded a HMRI postgraduate scholarship in medical research; and • Angus Leahy was the winner of the FEDUA Research Higher Degree Research Excellence Award. Our 2019 PhD graduates are on career pathways to successful positions in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and public health. Fiona Stacey, Jessica Ferguson, Katherine Brain, Kylie Abbott, Magdalena Wilczynska, Margaret Galloway, Megan Whatnall and Sarah Valkenborghs have all secured positions at UoN working with PRCPAN researchers. Beatrice Murawski and Hannah Brown have both secured positions working for Hunter New England Population Health. Following her PhD, Sandie Gopaul returned home where she is working for the University of Mauritius in Physiotherapy