I'm a physical activity specialist with the charity Active Gloucestershire, based in Gloucestershire, and have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship for 2020 to visit Australia to research using complex systems methodologies in community-based interventions with the Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE) at Deakin University, Victoria.

My role within the charity means I specialise in reducing physical inactivity levels of people at local and population level across Gloucestershire, applying behaviour-change modelling and whole-systems approaches, and I provide strategic oversight of our work with older adults, people with disabilities, and those with long-term health conditions.

As part of my six-week Fellowship in Australia, I will be looking at how tested complex whole-systems approaches can be effectively used with communities to develop community interventions to positively impact physical activity levels. I'm most looking forward to spending a significant amount of time with the GLOBE team, who are world leaders in research into using complex systems methodologies in community-based interventions and it will be a crucial part of my Fellowship to learn from their work to enable me to share this across the UK.