An event hosted by the All-island Obesity Action Forum supported by Safefood.
Join this webinar to learn how research can be used to create effective health policies.
Date: Tuesday 17 June, 2025 Time: 09:30 am – 11.15 am
Obesity is a complex disease with many contributing factors. Cross sectoral action is needed to reduce obesity and support health. Government policies play a key role in driving meaningful change.
Our expert speakers will discuss:
How advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) becomes policy. This includes the challenges in developing and implementing policies.
Nesta’s toolkit of evidence-based policies to reduce obesity.
Case studies that show how research on physical activity apply in real-world policy.
Don't miss this opportunity to learn how policymaking can make a real impact.
Programme
09.30 am – 09.45 am Dr. Aileen McGloin: Welcome and Open
Opening Speaker: Catherine Curran, Assistant Principal Officer at Healthy Ireland, Department of Health
09.45 am – 10.20 am Dr. Alison Tedstone: Policy journey in the UK: obesity
This talk will:
consider how advice from SACN is translated into British and Northern Ireland policy
look at the challenges faced in developing and implementing diet-related policies
address excesses in energy consumption in the UK and what has and has not been achieved.
10.20 am – 10.35 am Dr. Monique Tan: Raising the bar for evidence-based policy: a Blueprint for halving obesity
This session will take a deep dive into how the Nesta toolkit evaluating the cost of obesity was developed including:
the decision-making process behind selecting policies
the strategies for engaging policymakers
the potential real-world impact of these findings.
Attendees will gain insights into translating research into actionable policy solutions to turn the tide on obesity and help more people live longer, healthier lives.
10.35 am – 10.55 am Dr. Sven Messing: Translating physical activity research into policy: Current approaches and challenges
This talk looks at the translation of physical activity research into policy. The presentation will provide an overview of:
tools developed by scientists and international organisations to collect data on national physical activity policies
different approaches to knowledge translation
highlighting success stories and describing challenges that need to be overcome.
10:55 am – 11.10 am Questions and answer session
Panel: Dr. Monique Tan and Dr. Sven Messing
11.10 am – 11.15 am Closing remarks
Chair: Dr. Aileen McGloin
Register
Speakers
Dr. Sven Messing
University of Limerick
Dr. Sven Messing is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Limerick’s Physical Activity for Health Research Centre. He has an interdisciplinary research profile with a PhD in Political Science and 10+ years of professional experience in the field of physical activity and public health. His research focuses on policies to promote health-enhancing physical activity across political sectors and at all political levels. Furthermore, he has conducted research at the intersection of physical activity promotion and climate change, and on physical activity in the context of human rights.
Dr. Monique Tan
Nesta
Monique is a Principal Researcher at Nesta, specialising in nutrition policies. With a background in public health nutrition and data science, she has led research on UK policies, including national calorie, salt, and sugar reduction programmes, and more recently on broader obesity policies. She collaborates closely with NGOs in the food and health sector, such as the Obesity Health Alliance and Bite Back, to maximise the policy impact of her research. Having spent time in academia and in policymaking bodies such as the World Health Organization and the European Commission earlier in her career, Monique brings a multi-faceted perspective on translating research into impactful public health and nutrition policies.
Dr. Alison Tedstone
Dr Alison Tedstone is a registered public health nutritionist. She is the current chair of the Association for Nutrition (AfN) and an expert advisor on nutrition to the WHO and several charities. She is a member of the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group Subgroup on Policy Actions. Until recently she chaired the osteoporosis guidelines committee for NICE.
Alison retired from England’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in 2022 where she was, and previously at Public Health England (PHE), the Chief Nutritionist. She was responsible for scientific advice on nutrition including the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition and actions to improve diet, promote physical activity and tackle obesity. These included the development and monitoring food industry reformulation programmes on sugar, salt and calories.
Over the years, Alison led technical advice to support dietary improvement including front of pack labelling, controls on advertising, the soft drinks industry levy and numerous expert reports on, for example, folic acid, salt, carbohydrates, iron and vitamin D and on the relationship between COVID-19 and excess weight.
She and nutrition colleagues moved to PHE from DHSC in 2013 and from the Food Standards Agency in 2010. Until 2001, Alison was a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and before then a postdoctoral fellow in Oxford. She has a BSc and PhD in physiology.
Alison is a fellow of AfN and has honorary fellowships from the Nutrition Society and Royal Colleges of Physicians and Paediatrics and Child Health, an honorary doctorate from Surrey University and an MBE for services to public health.
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