Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Monday 9th March 2020 (10am - 5pm), School of Psychology, NUI Galway Reistration now open on Eventbrite! DetailsMany interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals, or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Prof Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at the School of Psychology, NUI Galway. Dr Lisa Hynes, Postdoctoral researcher & MY COMRADE Plus project manager, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, NUI Galway. Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, health and social care professionals, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast. To avoid disappointment, book on Eventbrite now!For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454. To hear about our upcoming events, join our Mailing List by emailing valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie  or follow us on Twitter @hbcrg

Upcoming Seminar Dr Elena Vaughan - 'Stigma Habitus: symbolic and structural violence in the reproduction of HIV-related stigma in Ireland' Tuesday February 25th, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, the Health Promotion Research Centre and PPI Ignite @ NUI Galway are running a Spring 2020 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. The seminars will take place on Tuesday February 25th, Thursday March 19th, Thursday April 23rd and Tuesday May 26th  at 1pm in G065, the School of Psychology. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm. We are delighted that Dr Elena Vaughan will deliver the first seminar next Tuesday 25th February at 1pm, on the topic of ‘Stigma Habitus: symbolic and structural violence in the reproduction of HIV-related stigma in Ireland’.  Dr Elena Vaughan is a post-doctoral researcher in the Health Promotion Research Centre in NUI Galway. Her PhD research investigated HIV-related stigma in Ireland. Specifically her work explored the relationship between media driven discourses of HIV and the embodied and enacted stigma experiences of people living with HIV in Ireland. Her research interests include health inequalities, HIV and sexual health, LGBT health, health-related stigmas and other social and structural determinants of health. Increasingly, health scholarship is recognising that stigma is a significant social determinant of health, acting as a barrier to accessing screening and care, adherence to treatment and, engagement with services (Stangl et al., 2019). Though by no means a new phenomenon, scholarly interest in stigma as a driver of health inequalities has grown exponentially since Goffman’s (1963) seminal work ‘Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity.’ As Tyler (2018) has argued however, scholarship on stigma ‘…often side-lines questions about where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes’ (p. 721). Similarly, Parker and Aggleton (2003) have called for research that interrogates ‘the social, cultural, political and economic determinants and consequences of stigmatization’ (p. 20). In response to such calls, Dr Elena Vaughan conducted research on HIV-related stigma in Ireland in order to explore the processes involved in the reproduction of stigma. Drawing on the findings from her work this seminar will explore health-related stigma through a Bourdieuian lens, offering a re-conceptualisation of the stigma process that acknowledges the constitutive roles of discourse, culture and power in determining health outcomes (Green & Labonte, 2008). Upcoming Seminar Schedule – Save the dates! Thursday March 19th Prof Michel Wensing, Implementation Science in Health- still much to do Thursday April 23rd Dr Nancy Santesso, Engagement of Key Stakeholders in Evidence Synthesis Tuesday May 26th Robert A. Joyce & Sinéad M. Hynes Five positive outcomes from integrating PPI in our research: experiences from a feasibility trial in Multiple Sclerosis (COB-MS)

The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, and the Health Promotion Research Centre are running an Autumn 2019 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm. We are delighted that Professor Jeremy Grimshaw, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute will deliver the next seminar on Tuesday 3rd December at 1pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway on the topic of ‘Optimising audit and feedback to improve care and population outcomes’.  Co-hosted by the Health Behavioural Change Research Change Group and the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network Prof Jeremy Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen. He moved to Canada in 2002. His research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to disseminate and implement evidence-based practice. He is a Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal College of Edinburgh. He has been awarded the CIHR Knowledge Translation award twice, and is the 2018 CIHR Barer-Flood career achievement award winner for Health Services and Policy Research. He has over 550 peer reviewed publications. To read more about Prof Grimshaw and his work, please visit the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Centre for Implementation Research. Prof Grimshaw is a recipient of the Ireland Canada University Foundation Flaherty Visiting Professorship. He will return to NUI Galway for a 12 week visit in Spring 2020.

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Monday 21st October 2019 (10am - 5pm), School of Psychology, NUI Galway Reistration now open on Eventbrite! DetailsMany interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals, or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Prof Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at the School of Psychology, NUI Galway. Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Lecturer at the School of Psychology, and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, health and social care professionals, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast. To avoid disappointment, book on Eventbrite now!For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454. To hear about our upcoming events, join our Mailing List by emailing valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie  or follow us on Twitter @hbcrg

The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, and the Health Promotion Research Centre are running an Autumn 2019 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. The seminars take place on November 1st, November 12th and December 3rd  at 1pm in the School of Psychology. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm. We are delighted that Professor Andrew Murphy and Dr Ray O’Connor will deliver the First seminar on Fri 1st Nov, on the topic of ‘Practice and Patient recruitment in primary care’. Details below. All are welcome, and please feel free to circulate to colleagues and contacts who may be interested in attending. Optimising audit and feedback to improve care and population outcomes Tuesday 3rd December at 1pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Co-hosted by the Health Behavioural Change Research Change Group and the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network Prof Jeremy Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen. He moved to Canada in 2002. His research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to disseminate and implement evidence-based practice. He is a Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal College of Edinburgh. He has been awarded the CIHR Knowledge Translation award twice, and is the 2018 CIHR Barer-Flood career achievement award winner for Health Services and Policy Research. He has over 550 peer reviewed publications. To read more about Prof Grimshaw and his work, please visit the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Centre for Implementation Research. Prof Grimshaw is a recipient of the Ireland Canada University Foundation Flaherty Visiting Professorship. He will return to NUI Galway for a 12 week visit in Spring 2020. Development of Health Promotion in Saudi Healthcare transformation Programme Tuesday 12th November, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Dr Albalawi is a Health Promotion Specialist. Skilled in Social Media Analytics, Agenda Setting, and Health Communication with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in Health Promotion and Health Communication from National University of Ireland, Galway. He is currently working as visiting research fellow at the Health Promotion Research Centre, NUI Galway. He is also a consultant at Vision Realisation Office, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia, and a consultant at Saudi CDC. Practice and Patient Recruitment in Primary Care Friday November 1st, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Professor Andrew Murphy is the Director of the HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland. Andrew is also the Professor of General Practice at NUI Galway and a GP in Turloughmore Medical Centre. Prof Murphy has a distinguished research career, including leading a clinical trial on the provision of secondary cardiac care in the community which was, at the time, the largest academic-lead trial ever conducted on the island of Ireland. Andrew’s  research, largely quantitative and always collaborative, addresses chronic disease management and professional practice in the community. In leading this Network, he builds on previous collaborations with partners in RSCI, QUB and the ICGP. With significant input from the public/patient guiding the research, Andrew has a vision that this Network will break new ground to answer common problems in primary care, that will improve individual patient health and healthcare Dr Ray O’Connor is a GP Fellow with the HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland , working to develop and implement a general practice information program of assessment, feedback and training intended to improve the quality of data recording in the network. He has worked in the Irish healthcare system continuously, working primarily in deprived areas of Limerick city. Dr O’Connor is also very active in teaching in Limerick, as medical director of the Medical Exercise programme, assistant programme director of the Mid-West Specialist Training Programme in General Practice, and group leader of an ICGP small group continuing medical education. From 2017 to 2019, Dr. O’Connor was a senior research fellow in the department of general practice at the University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical School. His research interests are varied, including chronic disease management and education. He has published 56 papers in peer-reviewed publications over the last 33 years and has acted as a Reviewer for Primary Healthcare Research and Development, Irish Medical Journal, BMJ Open and Journal of Thoracic Disease.

Wednesday 29th May, 1-2pm, School of Pschhology, NUI Galway. All welcome! ABSTRACTHealthier You: the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP) is currently offered to people in England who are at risk of type 2 diabetes.  NHS DPP is an ambitious, large-scale programme, offering a nine-month group-based intervention to support behavioural change in diet and exercise, with a view to reducing the risk of diabetes.DIPLOMA is a large multi-disciplinary research programme based at the University of Manchester and funded by NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research, which is undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the implementation, delivery and outcomes of the NHS DPP.The seminar will describe the methodological challenges of undertaking an evaluation of such a complex national health programme and present some early insights of the evaluation. About the speakerDr Sarah Cotterill is a senior lecturer in health service research and statistics in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester.  She works in the fields of public health, behaviour change and research methodology. Sarah started out as a social scientist testing out ways of encouraging people to undertake civic behaviour (recycling, charitable donations, volunteering). Since moving to health research in 2010, her research has focussed on interventions to change health behaviours of patients and clinical behaviours of health professionals.  Sarah has expertise in the design and analysis of randomised controlled trials and feasibility studies for the evaluation of health and public policy interventions. To hear about our upcoming events, join our Mailing List by emailing valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie  or follow us on Twitter @hbcrg

Bridging the Care Gap: An evaluation of palliative day-care services Tuesday 16th April, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G010, Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway Palliative day care services provide individual, patient centred and holistic care acting on domains including but not restricted to medical models of care. Daycare is traditionally an under researched area; it can also be difficult to evaluate from the patient perspective. This study adopted a mixed methods approach that used patients and staff input to design and deliver a study that evaluated day care services. Researchers found that Daycare was of great importance to the patients and their families, particular aspects of the service that were seen to be crucial were the socio-medical model, the wide variety of therapeutic services, provision of transport and the social supportive environment.Principal Investigators: Dr Catherine Anne Field and Dr Geraldine Mc DarbyCollaborators: Galway Hospice, Sora Abdul Fatta (NUIG Student Researcher) Dr Catherine Anne Field, (BSocSc, MSc, PhD) is lecturer in health promotion in the School of Health Science at the National University of Ireland Galway since 2013. Catherine Anne completed her undergraduate degree in Social Science at University College Dublin (UCD) and a Masters in Health Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). She initially worked for six years in the area of community based addiction care and mental health in Ireland and the United Kingdom in a clinical and research remit. After which she joined the School of Applied Social Science at UCD where she worked as a Research Assistant and University Teacher.   She was awarded her PhD from UCD in 2013 for her study ' The management of problem alcohol use among patients attending primary care for opiate substitution treatment’. The PhD was part of a Health Research Board funded project, and the findings were used to develop clinical guidelines for the management of problem alcohol use among drug users in in primary care. She was also a co-reviewer and co-author on a Cochrane Systematic Review – “Psychosocial interventions for problem alcohol use among drug users”. Catherine Anne is actively involved in the promotion of compassion, empathy and resilience in healthcare professionals and is a facilitator for the Schwartz Rounds at Galway University Hospital.

Open Science for Early Career Researchers in Health: an introductory two-day workshop Location: Room GO65, School of Psychology, NUI Galway 53.280044, -9.062179Cost: €50Registration link: EVENTBRITE Event outline:Open Science is ‘the movement to make scientific research, data and dissemination accessible to all levels of an inquiring society’. As well as making the outputs of research accessible to all stakeholders (i.e. researchers, policymakers, practitioners and members of the public), Open Science is about extending the principles of openness to the whole research cycle, i.e. sharing and collaborating as early as possible with all stakeholders to achieve a systemic change to the way science and research is done. Ensuring that health research science is open, accessible and usable is crucial in order to achieve the greatest possible impact for patients and end users. This two-day workshop aims to build capacity in open science specifically amongst early career researchers (ECRs - e.g. MSc, PhD, postdoctoral researchers, early career academics) in Irish health research. The workshop objectives are to 1) provide a general overview of open science, its components and principles, and 2) to develop basic open science knowledge and skills in a) research design and planning, b) data management and analysis, c) research reporting and d) publication and dissemination. In doing so, the event aims to cultivate a generation of future Irish health researchers who are passionate and knowledgeable about open science principles and ideals, to facilitate a cultural shift towards openness. Speakers:This event includes a stellar lineup of national and international speakers including Professor Declan Devane (NUI Galway, HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network, Evidence Synthesis Ireland), Dr Sile Lane (AllTrials Initiative, Sense about Science), Dr Hopin Lee (Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences Catalyst/University of Oxford Centre for Statistics in Medicine), Dr Chris Noone (NUI Galway), Dr Darren Dahly (University College Cork, HRB Clinical Research Facility), Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar (University College Cork, Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences Catalyst), Vicky Hellon (F1000, HRB Open Research) and many more still to be announced! Full schedule and speakers' bios availabe here:ECR Open Science in Health 2019 To register, please visit EVENTBRITE For more information, please contact:Dr. Elaine Toomey | Research FellowHealth Research Board Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Associate Director of Cochrane IrelandHealth Behaviour Change Research Group | Evidence Synthesis IrelandSchool of Psychology | School of Nursing and MidwiferyNational University of Ireland, GalwayEmail: elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ieTel: +353 (0)91 49 4458

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Many interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Prof Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry,  Lecturer at the School of Psychology; Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway; and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Dr Oonagh Meade, Postdoctoral Researcher andHealth Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway,  Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast! To avoid disappointment, book on EVENTBRITE now! For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454.

Workshop: Learning from past success  This workshop aims to provide training in applying for Health Research Board (HRB) Applied Partnership Awards (APA). It is suitable for researchers, health professionals and policy makers who want to learn more about the process of developing HRB APA applications. Applied Partnership Awards are designed to “bring knowledge users and academic researchers together to develop research projects that address a specific need within the Irish health or social care system” (HRB, 2018). It is expected that research findings from APA projects will directly impact on decision making in the knowledge user’s organisation. In 2019 there will be one round of APA funding with two separate peer review cycles. The closing date for Cycle 1 is the 25th January 2019. The closing date for Cycle 2 is the 13th September 2019. During the workshop, Sara Lord from the HRB will present an overview of the APA award call and requirements. Previous successful APA awardees will also share their experiences of developing their project applications through presentations and a panel discussion. Participants will also have an opportunity to learn about the HBCRG’s new online Integrated Knowledge Translation resource kit. This resource is designed to support Irish researchers, health professionals and policy makers to conduct healthcare research that is responsive to the needs of knowledge users. For details and to register, click HERE.

HBCRG and HRB-TMRN Winter School The Health Behaviour Change Research Group in collaboration with the HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network are delighted to host a 2-day Winter School (9th-10th Oct 2018) on Developing Best Practice for Conducting Trials of Complex and Behaviour Change Interventions in Health, focusing specifically on issues relevant to conducting trials of behaviour change interventions. This workshop will bring together leading national and international experts from the field of behaviour change and complex intervention research for two days of presentations, workshops and discussion on best research practice. Who should attend?The winter school is suitable for anyone interested in developing their knowledge and skills of conducting trials of complex and behaviour change interventions. Guest speakers include: Prof David Richards, Director, Complex Interventions Research Group, University of Exeter Medical School, UK Prof Molly Byrne, Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway Prof Wendy Hardeman, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK Dr Catherine Houghton, Co-Chair of the Qualitative Research in Trials Centre: QUESTS, NUI Galway Paul Montgomery, Professor of Social Intervention, University of Birmingham, UK The full schedule and registration is available on Eventbrite and on the HRB-TMRN website.

NUI Galway’s School of Psychology will host the 32nd Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society next week from 21-25August. The European Health Psychology Society is the largest professional organisation of health psychologists in Europe with more than 600 members worldwide and 750 delegates will attend. Hosting an event of this scale in Galway is estimated to benefit the local economy by almost €1 million with funding from Fáilte Ireland to support international promotion and the Health Research Board to support the running of this event. NUI Galway also successfully hosted the event in 2005 when more than 600 delegates attended the four-day conference. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Health Psychology Across the Lifespan: Uniting Research, Practice and Policy’. Experts from around the world will meet and share their latest research findings on a range of established and emerging topics in health psychology research including: the role of technology in changing health relevant behaviour; coping with chronic illness; the impact of psychological and social stress on health; and how behavioural science can inform how healthcare is delivered. The event will also provide an extensive programme of training workshops where delegates can update their knowledge and skills in research and will highlight the leading role that the School of Psychology at NUI Galway plays in research and practice relating to psychological and behavioural processes in health, illness and healthcare. Keynote speakers will include Professor Alex Rothman from the University of Minnesota in the US and Professor Molly Byrne from the Health Beahviour Change Research Group, who will speak about the role of patients and the public in informing this research. To stay informed about the conference, follow @ehps2018 or search for #ehps2018 on Twitter, or visit the conference website www.ehps2018.net 

INTeRACT for Health: Increasing Integrated Knowledge Translation Capacity for Impact Tuesday 12th 2018, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Registration is free, but places are limited so register now to secure your place! To register please CLICK HERE OverviewThis one-day workshop aims to provide training in integrated Knowledge Translation to members of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway, our partners within Strategic Planning and Transformation in the Health Services Executive (formerly the Health and Well-being division) and other interested stakeholders. Integrated Knowledge Translation is an approach that seeks to optimise the usefulness and relevance of research by involving those who will use research knowledge from the very beginning of planning process. The workshop will address integrated Knowledge translation in the context of chronic illness prevention, self-management and health behaviour change. The training will be led by an experienced facilitator, Professor Maureen Dobbins from McMaster University, Canada. She holds cross appointments with the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the School of Rehabilitation Sciences, and the Masters of Science in eHealth program. Attendees will learn about what integrated Knowledge Translation is, current international best practice, and the importance of integrated Knowledge Translation within Irish healthcare research. National and international speakers will showcase examples of good integrated Knowledge Translation in action. Participants will learn about resources they can use in order to apply integrated Knowledge Translation within their own work and will have the opportunity to feed in to the development of an integrated Knowledge Translation toolkit for researchers, health professionals and policy makers in healthcare research in Ireland. The full schedule is availabe to download HERE: INTeRACT Schedule Speakers include: Professor Maureen Dobbins, McMaster University, Canada Dr Teresa McGuire, Principal Officer, Research Services, Department of Health Professor Anne Rogers, Professor of Health Systems Implementation, University of Southampton, U.K. Professor Molly Byrne, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway Dr Oonagh Meade, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway Dr Aisling Sheehan, Centre For Effective Services  Anne Pardy, Infant Health and Wellbeing, Department of Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Division, HSE Dr Emma Frew, Reader in Health Economics, University of Birmingham, U.K. Fiona Riordan, School of Public Health, University College Cork Professor Saoirse Nic Ghabhainn, Health Promotion Research Centre, NUI Galway  The full schedule is availabe to download HERE: INTeRACT Schedule Who should attend?This workshop is suitable for researchers, health professionals and policy makers with an interest in chronic illness prevention, self-management, health behaviour change and integrated Knowledge Translation. Registration is free, but places are limited so register now to secure your place! To register please CLICK HERE

Optimization of Behavioral and Biobehavioral Interventions: An Introduction to the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) for building more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable interventions Presenter: Professor Linda M. Collins, Fulbright Specialist and Director, The Methodology Center, Pennsylvania State University, USA Introduction video to MOST with Linda Collins at: https://methodology.psu.edu/publications/news/most-intro-video Development of the majority of behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions in use today has been based primarily on the two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT is an excellent way to determine whether an intervention is effective. However, the treatment package approach is less helpful in providing empirical information that can be used to optimize the intervention to achieve improved effectiveness, efficiency, economy and scalability. In this workshop an innovative methodological framework, the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), will be presented. MOST is based on ideas inspired by engineering methods, which stress both ongoing improvement of products and careful management of research and implementation resources. A comprehensive strategy for intervention optimization, MOST includes three phases: preparation, optimization, and evaluation. MOST can be used to build a new intervention or to improve an existing intervention. Using MOST it is possible to engineer an intervention to meet a specific criterion; for example, the objective might be to identify the intervention that achieves the best outcome obtainable for less than a specified implementation cost. This workshop will provide an introduction to MOST, with the objective of helping participants gain the skill set needed to be successful obtaining funding to apply MOST in their research. Ongoing intervention development studies using the MOST approach will be used as illustrative examples. A substantial amount of time will be devoted to experimental design, which is an important tool in MOST. In particular, factorial experiments and fractional factorial experiments will be discussed. Time will be reserved for open discussion of how the concepts presented can be applied in the research of attendees. Following the workshop, attendees also have the option to book a 1-hour one-to-one meeting with Prof Collins on Wednesday 25 April to discuss the specifics of your research project. Please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie to reserve a slot. To book a place, please visit our EVENTBRITE page Schedule DAY 1 10:30 – 11:00                Introductions11:00 – 12:30                Introduction to MOST12:30 – 13:30                Lunch13:30 – 14:30                The preparation phase: conceptual model and optimization criterion14:30 – 15:30                The optimization phase: Factorial optimization trials15:30 – 15:45                Break15:45 – 17:00                The optimization phase: Factorial optimization trials (continued) and the interaction                                                Q&A DAY 2 9:30 – 11:00                  The optimization phase: Fractional factorial optimization trials11:00 – 11:15                Break11:15 – 12:30                The optimization phase: Multi-level situations and factorial experiments                                                How to power factorial experiments: Conclusion-priority vs. Decision-priority perspectives on research12:30 – 13:30                Lunch13:30 – 14:30                Concluding the optimization phase: Deciding on what constitutes the optimized intervention14:30 – 15:00                Successful implementation of a factorial optimization trial in the field15:00 – 16:00                Basing a successful grant proposal on MOST                                                Q & A DAY 3: Optional 1 hour one-to-one meeting with Prof Collins to discuss the specifics of your research project. Please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie to reserve a slot. Intended Participants: Researchers, Principle Investigators, Statisicians, Trial Designers, Health Economists, Researcher Funders, and  other Researchers including PhD students interested in RCTs and research methodologies. Workshop fees: €170 (general admission); €95 (student, valid ID required), which includes workshop materials, a copy of Prof Collins new book "Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)", lunch, and refreshments. To book a place, please visit our EVENTBRITE page Linda M. Collins, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Human Development & Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, United States. She is also Director of The Methodology Center, an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the advancement and dissemination of quantitative methods for applications in the behavioral sciences. Dr. Collins’s research interests include the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), an engineering-inspired methodological framework for optimizing and evaluating behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions. The objective of MOST is to improve intervention effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and scalability. Dr. Collins is currently collaborating on research applying MOST to develop optimized behavioral interventions in the areas of smoking cessation, weight loss, prevention of excessive drinking and risky sex in college students, and HIV services. Her research has been funded by the United States National Institutes of Health continuously for more than 30 years.  Dr. Collins’s publications have appeared in a wide range of outlets, including methodological journals such as Psychological Methods, substance use journals such as Nicotine and Tobacco Research, behavioral journals such as Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and engineering journals such as IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Society for Prevention Research. She is a past president of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and the Society for Prevention Research. Dr. Collins has delivered more than 100 invited presentations and workshops on MOST around the world. Dr. Collins is a recipient of a Fulbright Specialist Award 2018 to visit the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at the National University of Ireland, Galway in April – May. During her visit to Ireland, she will deliver a workshop and a lecture on MOST and meet with research teams to explore and develop the application of MOST to their work.  To book a place, please visit our EVENTBRITE page

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: Follow-Up Primarily designed for participants who have previously attended training in health behaviour change, the follow-up workshop will provide mentoring and support to researchers (including PhD students), practitioners and policy makers currently engaged in the development and evaluation of behaviour change interventions. As part of registration, participants are asked to submit a short 200 word overview of a behaviour change intervention they are currently working on, and any particular barriers or challenges faced. These challenges and potential solutions will be discussed during the workshop. The number of participants will be limited to ten, to facilitate individual guidance from expert workshop facilitators. Workshop Facilitators Dr Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Workshop fee: €200 (full fee); €100 (student rate, valid student ID required) To register: Please visit our Eventbrite page HERE For further information on the workshop: Please contact Oonagh Meade at oonagh.meade@nuigalway.ie To be added to our Events email list: Email Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Many interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Dr Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Postdoctoral Researcher and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast! To avoid disappointment, book now by contacting Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454. For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454.

Process Evaluations of Complex Interventions in Health In association with the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) and the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), the NUI Galway Health Behaviour Change Research Group are delighted to host the DECIPHer one-day workshop on Process Evaluation of Complex Interventions in Health, taking place in the Arts Millennium Building NUI Galway on Thursday 7th September, 10am – 4.30pm. Summary: The aim of this one-day workshop is to provide participants with knowledge and skills of the theory and practice of process evaluations of complex health interventions. The workshop will be of relevance to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners interested in developing and evaluating complex health interventions. The workshop will cover: The role of process evaluation in understanding complex health interventions The importance of intervention theory and logic models The components of process evaluations Identification of process evaluation questions and methods Analysis of process data Workshop facilitators: Dr Graham MooreDr Moore is the Deputy Director of the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), Cardiff and a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences and Health. Dr Moore has an international reputation as a specialist in methodology for evaluating complex interventions, and is lead author of the recent MRC guidance for process evaluation of complex interventions. He is also lead for DECIPHer's complex intervention methods programme. Dr Rhiannon EvansDr Evans is a Senior Lecturer in Social Science and Health based at DECIPHer, a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence and a member of the DECIPHer process evaluation teaching team. She is also an affiliated Senior Lecturer at CASCADE (Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre). She is  lead for DECIPHer's mental health and wellbeing programme. Dr Evans has expertise in process evaluations and implementation science. As places are limited for this FREE event, if you would like to attend please submit no more than 500 words explaining why this course will be of benefit to you. Please include details of previous or planned research in process evaluations of complex interventions and demonstration of financial need etc. Closing date for applications is Friday August 11th at 12pm to be sent to Dr Elaine Toomey at elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ie   This workshop is generously supported by funding through the BITSS Catalyst Program with support from the John Templeton Foundation. Dr Elaine Toomey of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group is a Catalyst for the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences. For more information, please visit www.bitss.org, sign up for the BITSS blog, or follow BITSS on Twitter @UCBITSS For further information, please contact Elaine Toomey, PhD, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway Tel: 00353-91-494458Email: elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ie

Funding Pathways for Early Career Researchers: an Interdisciplinary Guide ‌ Thursday 4th May, 2017: 10am - 1pmSchool of Psychology, Room G065 We would like to welcome all postgraduate students to a short workshop dedicated to highlighting funding pathways for early career researchers. Following the very successful "Early Career Researcher Session" at the IRC Interdisciplinary Research Workshop for Health in September 2016, we aim to show early career researchers the opportunities that are available to postgraduate students in terms of building a career in academia. In this workshop, we will hear from the NUI Galway Research Office as well as personal experiences from distinguished and established researchers from NUIG. For more details, please see the WEBSITETo register, click HERE. This event is free of charge, and places are limited!For further information, please contact: Bárbara Oliveira, b.oliveira1@nuigalway.ie  

The Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland (ASOI) are delighted to announce our 2017 Annual Conference. This year our focus is on Childhood Obesity and, in collaboration with Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway, and University College Cork, we have an expanded program over two days with over 15 keynote speakers from 7 different countries. Full details at http://www.asoi.info/ Day 1 of ASOI 2017 will focus on prevention of childhood obesity, and integral to the day we are holding roundtable discussion workshops as part of a study to identify and prioritise knowledge gaps concerning obesity prevention and knowledge translation. Day 2 of ASOI 2017 will focus on the treatment of paediatric obesity, and we will also have breakout workshops during the day allowing attendees to further tease the topics raised with reference to their area of interest/practice. Abstract Call is now open!! Please see the call for abstracts and programme Register Here:  http://buytickets.at/asoi This conference will be relevant to students, healthcare professionals, educators and researchers involved in the fields of primary care, paediatrics, public health, health policy and implementation science, amongst others. There will be the opportunity to present posters across both days of the conference, with a prize presented on each day to the best poster relevant to the topic of that day. Day 1 of this two-day event is kindly supported by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Scheme through funding awarded to Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar (UCC) for COS-IF: Core Outcome Set for Infant Feeding, and Ms Marita Hennessy (HBCRG, NUI Galway) for POCKETS: Prevention of Childhood Obesity-Knowledge Exchange and TranSlation. Learn More >

Follow-up Clinic: Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change Primarily designed for participants who have previously attended training in health behaviour change, the follow-up clinic will provide mentoring and support to researchers (including PhD students), practitioners and policy makers currently engaged in the development and evaluation of behaviour change interventions. Potential participants are asked to submit a short 200 word overview of a behaviour change intervention they are currently working on, and any particular barriers or challenges faced. These challenges and potential solutions will be discussed during the clinic. The number of participants will be limited to ten, to facilitate individual guidance from expert clinic facilitators. Clinic Facilitators Dr Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Postdoctoral Researcher and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Workshop fee: €200 (full fee); €100 (student rate, valid student ID required) As places are limited, please complete the Follow-Up Application Form to apply for a place, and return to valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie by 5.00pm on Tuesday 10 January 2017. Participants will be notified on Friday 13 January of the outcome. For queries about the follow-up clinic, please contact Dr Jenny Mc Sharry at jenny.mcsharry@nuigalway.ie

One Day Workshop Wednesday 26 October 2016, 10am – 5pmSchool of Psychology, NUI Galway In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, qualitative synthesis methods. Participants will gain an overview and understanding of different methods involved in conducting a qualitative review. The workshop is for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students interested in evidence synthesis of qualitative data. Limited Places Available! Cost €100 (€40 students) Details and Registration, visit: www.tinyurl.com/HBCRG16 For further information, please contact Elaine Toomey E: elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ie  T: 091 49 4458 QUESTS Qualitative Research in Trials Centre, Aras Moyola, NUI Galway www.quests.ie Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway www.nuiglaway.ie/psy

Conference - Strength in Numbers: Teaming up to improve the health of young adults with Type 1 Diabetes Bringing stakeholders in young adult type 1 diabetes management together to share and develop key strategies for improving the health of this group. This innovative, multi-disciplinary one-day conference will be of interest to health services providers, researchers, young adults with type 1 diabetes and policy-makers. Learn more >