We are proud to announce that CRE HiPP Research Fellow Dr Briony Hill has been awarded a prestigious Australian Government Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) grant.

Her project aims to reframe our understanding of women’s preconception lifestyle health, including issues of weight stigma.

It will generate new knowledge on societal views of weight stigma for preconception women, and identify stakeholder views on integrating preconception into healthy lifestyle policies.

According to Australian Research Council CEO Ms Judi Zielke PSM, “The DECRA scheme allows researchers in the early stages of their career to develop and apply their research skills, on projects that benefit Australians.

“The projects also give these researchers the opportunity to collaborate and build connections that will help them progress through a career in research.”

Expected outcomes of Dr Hill’s project include a new theory- and evidence-informed conceptual model for preconception lifestyle health that transcends the current focus on personal responsibility.

This should provide significant benefits, such as informing policy to drive systems changes around preconception lifestyle health, resulting in cultural change and improved population health for Australians.

Congratulations to Dr Hill, and we look forward to seeing this project evolve and produce results!