New knowledge

There is still a lot we don't know about why some children become overweight. We also don't know what is causing more people to fail to thrive in life.

Therefore, we must help develop research projects that can create new knowledge in these specific areas of interest. It is our ambition that this knowledge will form the basis for policy and practice changes to promote healthy weight and well-being in children and adolescents. For this reason, we intend for the research to be application-orientated.

The research will increase our understanding of the importance of societal, social, behavioural and psychological factors that, together with biological factors, contribute to children becoming or not becoming overweight.

We use a variety of scientific study designs and draw on knowledge from many professional disciplines.

Among other things, the Centre will bring together existing knowledge and initiate new research projects that expand on what we already know. For example, being overweight may result from a particular diet and little to very little physical activity. However, we also need to explore new possible causes for the development of excessive weight gain and the failure to thrive. We will investigate the importance of sleep, socio-economic inequality and the relationship between weight and well-being.

It is against this evidence-based backdrop that solutions must be found to prevent obesity in children and to maintain a healthy weight throughout life as well as promote better well-being.