We previously announced that the Prevention Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, the University of Illinois Chicago, and West Virginia University were awarded as the Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (PAPREN) Coordinating Center for the 2024-2029 funding cycle. PAPREN is funded as a Special Interest Project under the Prevention Research Center mechanism of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. PAPREN’s funding is from CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO).

We are excited and proud to share information about PAPREN in the new cycle and how you can get involved. We will kick off the cycle with a webinar January 22, 2025, from 12-1 ET/11-12 CT/10-11 MT/9-10 PT. We invite all PAPREN members to join us to learn more and ask questions. Registration is required. Click here to register.

In this blog post, we offer a preview of the new focus, activities, and structure. But please join us on January 22 for more!

Our Focus

PAPREN will focus on DNPAO’s priority physical activity strategy, Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design. PAPREN will continue to serve as a network that brings together diverse partners with a shared vision of achieving active communities. Our goals remain to:

• Grow awareness, capacity and collaboration among our members
• Conduct applied, practice-relevant research
• Support translation and implementation of research to practice

We will specifically emphasize practice-based topics and prioritize implementation science, that is, research intended to inform how to best put evidence into practice. Additionally, we will focus on advancing the evidence in urban/suburban and rural contexts.

Our Activities

PAPREN will continue to share resources via our website and the monthly PAPREN Post.

We will continue to host a speaker series that will alternate each month by one of the two following types of presentations. All presentations will occur in Zoom webinar mode and require registration:

• State of the Science will feature presentations on cutting edge research and national priority initiatives that can inform research and practice.
• Implementation in Action will feature practice-based presentations that highlight how evidence can be put into practice to transform communities. This series will include presentations focused on urban and rural contexts.

The PAPREN Coordinating Center will conduct a series of research projects designed to advance the methodological base for implementation science in the context of community design and physical activity. This work will be presented at the State of the Science presentation on February 26, 12-1 ET/11-12 CT/10-11 MT/9-10 PT.

There will continue to be opportunities for interested members to collaborate on research projects generated in our NEW Rural and Urban Hubs. These are described below.

We will also continue to serve as a research partner of CDC’s Active People, Healthy Nation ^SM initiative.

Our Structure

We heard you! Our most recent evaluation of PAPREN identified two important ways that members want the network to improve. First, you told us that the Work Group structure could be simplified. We previously had six Work Groups, each with its own monthly speaker series and projects. While this presented tremendous opportunity for learning, it also meant that members often did not have time to participate. Second, you told us that you’d like more opportunities to network with each other.

To respond to your feedback, we have made changes to the PAPREN work group structure.  In place of the six work groups, we are introducing two “Hubs”: an Urban Hub and a Rural Hub. These inter-related groups will focus on topics related to community design, including transportation, land use, and parks, trails and greenspace. The Hubs will be a space for people with broad interests to convene, discuss topics of interest and generate research ideas. Hub leaders will guide exploration of project ideas, and members can participate in projects that align with their interests and availability. Importantly, the Hubs are not intended to continue artificial separation or siloing: Hub membership is open to all, and we anticipate extensive cross-collaboration across the Hubs. We wholeheartedly believe that the shift will benefit PAPREN overall and make our community yet more vibrant.

We are honored to introduce the Hub leaders, who were part of PAPREN leadership during the previous cycle. M. Renée Umstattd Meyer, formerly a co-lead of the Rural Active Work Group, will lead the Rural Hub. Sandy Slater, formerly a co-lead of the Parks and Green Space Work Group, will lead the Urban Hub. During this new funding cycle both Hubs will infuse implementation science methods throughout their efforts. Renée is excited to work with existing members and welcome new members into the Rural Hub, noting, “Our focus in the Rural Hub is to support impactful connections, shared learning, and research focused on the active living characteristics and needs of rural communities.” Sandy is excited to invite PAPREN members to join the newly created Urban Hub, stating, “Through this Hub we’ll continue to focus on familiar priority topic areas related to the built environment and physical activity (e.g., parks and green space, active travel, and transportation policy and planning), while applying an urban lens.”

In addition to the Hub leads, each Hub will have subject matter leads who will collaborate in generating and supporting projects in and across their respective Hubs. Angie Cradock, Jeanette Gustat and Nat Serrano will be subject matter leads under the Urban Hub. Jessica Stroope and Marilyn Wende will be subject matter leads under the Rural Hub.

We ask for your patience as we make changes to the website over the next month to reflect our new structure and activities. 

Get involved!

Now is a great time to get involved in a Hub to help generate ideas, lead projects, and collaborate on others. All current members will be retained on the full PAPREN Network list and continue to receive the PAPREN Post and time-sensitive notices. Members can then sign up for the Rural and/or Urban Hubs and participate as desired. Sign-up forms will be available as of the January 22 network event.

See you on January 22!

-Stephenie, Jamie, Christiaan and Karin, PAPREN Coordinating Center