1.  University of Limerick, Ireland:

Prof. Donnelly, lead applicant, is director of UL’s Health Research Institute and has expertise in PA, SB, sleep measurement and data processing across numerous devices (accelerometers etc.).

Prof Woods (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0892-6591), PI on JPI-Policy Evaluation Network (https://www.jpi-pen.eu/), Director of Limerick’s PA for Health cluster (PAfH) has expertise in intervention design, population surveillance and public health agenda addressing inactivity.

Dr. Pepijn van de Ven (ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3321-450X), senior lecturer in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering has vast experience and expertise in AI and ML.

The WEALTH team at UL are based in the Physical Education and Sport Sciences (PESS) Department, which is a vibrant and rapidly growing department in the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences. It forms part of the ‘Physical Activity for Health’ research cluster in the Health Research Institute (https://www.ul.ie/hri/) at the University of Limerick. PAfH is a multidisciplinary research group of physiologists, sports and exercise scientists, physiotherapists and health, sports and exercise psychologists set up to meet global and local policy requirements in research the area of physical activity for health.

2.  University College Cork, Ireland

The School of Public Health, University College Cork hosts the Health Research Board’s Centre for Health and Diet Research (CHDR). The CHDR provides a national focal point for public health nutrition research in the Republic of Ireland. Dr. Harrington leads the nutrition and food policy research team in CHDR which draws from a wide range of academic disciplines including nutrition, public health, food marketing, consumer behaviour, economics, social psychology, and food policy and had significant input to DEDIPAC and PEN.

3.  Université Paris 13, France

Université Paris 13 (UP13, University Sorbonne Paris Nord, USPN) is host to the Nutritional Epidemiology Research team (Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle, EREN). EREN (Director: Dr M. Touvier) is affiliated with INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) and the French National Agronomic Research Institute together with UP13 has recognized expertise in conducting observational and intervention studies focused on the relationship between lifestyle (diet and PA) and occurrence of disease. From 2009 onwards, the EREN team developed the NutriNet-Santé study, an observational large-scale prospective open web-cohort study. Dr. L Fezeu, MD, PhD, (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7589-3179) is assistant professor at UP13 and one of the PI in the NutriNet-Santé study. Dr H Charreire, PhD, (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1260-9812) is a health geographer who brings expertise in relationships of the living environment with PA and eating behaviours.

4.  University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

At the Centre of Advanced Technology within the Faculty of Science at the University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, Dr. Tomas Vetrovsky will focus on advanced methods for sensor data gathering and evaluation, and has developed the HealthReact system for EMA methodology. The HealthReact system consists of a server-side application that is connected to the Fitbit server and a smartphone mobile app (for both Android and iOS phones) that can display questionnaires. As such, the system allows for questionnaires triggered by pre-defined context as recorded by the Fitbit wearable monitor. The HealthReact system has been previously employed in the EMA of PA and SB in young adult populations and older adults.

5.  Leibniz Institut für Präventionsforschung und Epidemiologie – BIPS, Germany

BIPS (WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, Nutrition and PA) is an interdisciplinary epidemiological research institute with experience in research, monitoring and surveillance of health and health-related behaviours in the general population (Dr. Antje Hebestreit ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7354-5958). BIPS hast vast experience in coordinating and working in international projects, e.g., IDEFICS/I. Family cohort, HDHL PEN and the HDHL DEDIPAC Knowledge Hub and setting up and maintaining critical research infrastructure to exploit collected data way beyond project timelines. BIPS is highly competent in study design, statistical methods, accelerometry, quality management of surveys, and statistical modelling and analysis of observational and longitudinal studies (Dr. Christoph Buck, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0261-704X). In 2020, a research group was established  that focusses on the development of statistical inference in ML methods lead by Prof.  Marvin Wright (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8542-6291) who is advising the project team. The BIPS team will include 1 senior researcher, 2 Post-doc researchers, 1 PhD statistician and supporting staff for field work and statistical documentation and programming.

Collaborators

1.  LifeQ

LifeQ is adding healthspan to lifespan by empowering people to stay healthier for longer and take preventative action based on personalized insights – all by simply using a wearable device. As a health platform leveraging the power of PPG – the flashing lights under wearable devices known as photoplethysmography – LifeQ enables a wide range of readily-available, affordable consumer wearables to gather clinical-grade data in near real-time without compromising on the industry-standard battery life. When combined with a deep understanding of computational systems biology, LifeQ turns these devices into comprehensive 24/7 lenses able to help people age well. Visit www.lifeq.com for more information.