Hosted by PAHRC and co-hosted with Active Scotland Division of Government
This was the 6th Year of the Scottish Physical Activity Research Connections (SPARC) conference co-hosted by Physical Activity for Health Research Centre (PAHRC) and the Active Scotland Division of Government. The first five years were in-person events and hugely successful at creating a network of researchers, policy makers and practitioners in physical activity in Scotland.
In 2020 we went online and had more than 190 delegates who participated. Delegates exchanged more than 400 messages during the virtual sessions and delegates viewed more than 2,100 posters and 4,000 modules across all the hubs.
In 2021 we returned online with two themes:
• The eight investments that work for physical activity promotion
• Physical activity and Covid-19
On Wednesday 10th November our keynote speaker was Flora Jackson from Public Health Scotland. Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport delivered a short video presentation on Scottish physical health policy.
On Thursday 11th November our keynote was delivered by Dr Xanne Janssen of Strathclyde University and Professor Anna Whittaker of Stirling University. Dr Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, delivered a short video presentation on physical activity and prevention of Covid-19.
On each day there were workshops related to how to promote physical activity in each of the eight investments areas (Whole-of-School Programmes; Active Transport; Active Urban Design; Healthcare; Public Education, Including Mass Media; Sport and Recreation for All; Workplaces; Community-Wide Programmes) and on the use of the Actify platform.
We also offered the chance to present open communications related to the eight investments and to physical activity and Covid-19. These communications were research based/case studies of good practice. These can now be found on the SPARC 2021 Actify Hub at https://www.actify.org.uk/sparc2021
Archive Pages