Dr Kieran Dowd

Dr Kieran Dowd is a lecturer on the B.Sc. (Hons) Physical Activity and Health Sciences and B.Sc. Exercise and Health Sciences in TUS. Kieran completed his B.Sc. (Hons) Physical Education with concurrent Mathematics Teaching in the University of Limerick in 2007 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Limerick in 2013 in the area of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviours in Irish Adolescents. Kieran undertook a post-doctoral researcher position in the University of Limerick from 2014 to 2016, before undertaking his current role in TUS.

Kieran’s research interests include the examination of sedentary patterns and physical activity behaviours in free-living environment; the examination of the associations between sedentary patterns; physical activity behaviours and indices of health and the implementation of interventions to modify health behaviours. He has supervised doctoral students to completion in the areas of physical activity, sedentary behaviours and cardiovascular disease in Irish adults and in the tracking of physical activity and sedentary behaviours from youth to early adulthood and in the contribution of organised sport to physical activity. Kieran is currently supervising PhD research which examines the effect of role models on sports participation in youth and the effect of specialist targeted interventions in primary school physical education on physical activity and health. He is also supervising PhD research on the effect of a co-created exercise intervention in paediatric cancers survivors and on the effect of a co-created exercise intervention in patients living with dementia.

Kieran is the co-ordinator of the INDEEP Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network. INDEEP (INtervention on the DEterminants of, and Expertise in, Physical activity behaviours) provides innovative and interdisciplinary research and training in physical activity and health promotion. The network will develop highly skilled graduates that will lead state-of-the-art advancements in youth physical activity. A total of 10 Ph.D. candidates across six European Countries (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Portugal and the Netherlands) will work on the INDEEP project, which will aim to develop methodologies for the development and implementation of interventions in European youth.

Kieran is currently a deliverable lead on the implementation of a proof of concept study on the harmonised collection of physical activity behaviours and their associated determinants as part of the DE-PASS (Determinants of Physical Activities in Settings) Cost Action (https://depass.eu/). This involves the harmonised collection of data in 10 countries across Europe, including Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia.

Kieran also acts as a work package lead on the Erasmus+ Sport funded project Click2Move project (https://click2moveproject.com/). This project, in which Kieran co-supervises one Ph.D. in TUS and one Ph.D. in the University of Vic, Barcelona, Spain, examines the impact that increased home-office-based work has on sedentary behaviours, and will develop a co-created digital intervention to reduce sitting time and improve sedentary behaviours in the home-office environment.