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Successful scale-up of public health interventions is essential to equitable and sustainable population health improvement. Scaling up is, however, a lengthy, complex and dynamic process, influenced heavily by contextual and setting-specific factors that impact community-level adoption, delivery and sustainability. For physical activity and nutrition, research has shown that an ideal context for scaling up an intervention can improve initial uptake, however, it does not necessarily mean the intervention is sustainably implemented at scale, thus leading to the desired long-term health benefits. We lack an understanding of how to identify strategies, mechanisms (which are causal pathways explaining how strategies work to achieve desired outcomes) and leverage points (places to intervene in a system) to improve scale-up outcomes.

This PhD will use data from multicomponent interventions (targeting physical activity, nutrition and sleep) aimed at infants, children and adolescents, currently being implemented in Australia by academics in partnership with governments. This PhD will also provide the opportunity to collect new data and collaborate internationally.

Prerequisites:

This opportunity is available to domestic and international students. Applicants must hold a Bachelor’s degree with Honours or a Master’s degree with a substantial research component, or equivalent, in education, health promotion, implementation science, public health or exercise science.

Applicants must have experience in quantitative and qualitative methodology.

Fluency in English (evidence of English proficiency is required), highly motivated and able to work in a multidisciplinary team.

Previous research or practice-based experience in the education system, intervention implementation/evaluation, systems approaches and/or health policy is desirable but not essential.