I-PARC

Established in 2018, I-PARC involves multiple stakeholders, across policy, practice and research, who work together to apply insight, intelligence, and innovation to the challenge of getting more people to become more active, more often in Ireland. The challenge of how to increase the physical activity levels of the population of Ireland needs a whole of systems approach, one that brings together researchers, policy makers and practitioners from multiple sectors involved directly or indirectly in the creation of opportunities for physical activity.    

I-PARCs vision is to inspire the best use of evidence, effective delivery and supportive environments for improving activity levels in Ireland. Consequently, I-PARC brings together all relevant 'stakeholders (Appendix 1) and uses a formula to effect real change in addressing the inactivity challenge (Figure 1).

Progress to date:

I-PARC has hosted four events since its establishment in 2018;

1. The 1st I-PARC symposium (June 2019) “Effective Evaluation and Implementation of Physical Activity Initiatives”.
2. The 2nd I-PARC symposium (January 2020) “Systems Based Approach: What is it and why is it relevant to Physical Activity promotion?”.
3. The I-PARC inaugural conference (January 2021) “Collaborative Action for Physical activity promotion: opportunities presented by COVID-19”.
4. The I-PARC second annual conference (January 2022) “Leveraging policy, programs, and research for a more active society in the wake of COVID-19"

Some of I-PARC’s other outputs include two research articles published in peer reviewed journals and the development of three toolkits for delivery in the form of capacity building workshops in which participants will become familiar with the toolkit resources (Figure 1).

1. A Systems Approach toolkit – what are the Enabling contexts that promote physical activity?
2. Evaluation Toolkit - how do we measure effective physical activity interventions?
3. Implementation toolkit - what are the criteria for effective implementation of physical activity interventions?