Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement Research Centre (SHAPE)

The Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre provides a structured research environment in which to investigate the biological, behavioural and societal impact of sport and exercise for human performance, health and well-being. SHAPE has five established Research Groups (see below), all of which are committed to producing research of the highest quality that generates impact for our stakeholders and beneficiaries.

The Sport and Society Research Group (SASRG) is a rapidly developing Group, led by Dr Gavin Weedon, comprising early career researchers publishing papers relating to the socio-cultural dimensions of sport, health and exercise. The Group is committed to socially relevant scholarship that impacts significant issues and debates across sociology, psychology and related fields. The Group connects research pertaining to diverse issues of violence, pollution, mental health, and gender discrimination, into real-world community initiatives, media communications and policy. The impact of this research in shaping policy governance (e.g., England Boxing), garnering media exposure (e.g., Canadian Broadcasting Company, The Conversation, The Irish Examiner) and supporting community initiatives (e.g., Love Fighting Hate Violence, Think Football), evidences a commitment to socially relevant scholarship.

The Sports Performance Research Group (SPRG) led by Dr Caroline Sunderland, this group completes multidisciplinary research, across the ages, to understand and improve cognitive and sporting performance and reduce injury. The Group’s team sport research focusses upon enhancing performance and reducing injury, in international and professional club team sports via athlete monitoring and the application of psychological, physiological and biomechanical interventions to improve performance. Specific examples of our current research include:

• The identification of methods to optimise workload quantification to minimise time-loss incidence, severity and burden in elite sports teams;
• Examination of the impact of different modes, durations and types of exercise on cognitive performance;
• Talent identification and development;
• Strategies to improve performance in hot climates;
• Examining which aspects of the social environment (for example, coaches, parents, peers) have most influence on behaviour and outcomes in children and young participants in sport and physical activity; and determining the optimal approaches for providing support to children and young participants in sport and physical activity;
• Analysing and modelling sporting skills and movements in order to improve performance and reduce the incidence, severity and burden of injury.

The Musculoskeletal, Physical Activity and Metabolic Health investigates a wide range of areas related to physical activity, health and performance. ​Research questions, such as, The Implications of Physical Activity on Healthy Aging and How Sex Differences and Environment Influence Mechanobiology of Bone Metabolism are investigated using a multidisciplinary approach. The MSP research group have four sub-themes that are of particular focus within the group: Nutrition and Metabolism, Healthy Aging, Neuromuscular Physiology ​and Injury and illness.

The Exercise, Technology and Nutrition for Health (EXTEND) is led by Dr Cleveland Barnett and explores how exercise, technology and nutrition can positively impact health and performance. The EXTEND group aligns with the Health and Well-Being and Medical Technologies and Advanced Materials strategic research themes at Nottingham Trent University.

The Physical Activity and Nutrition for Health Across the Lifespan is led by Dr Simon Cooper and conducts research examining how we can utilise both physical activity and nutrition to enhance health and well-being across the entire lifespan. Our work encompasses both paediatric and older adult populations, measuring a range of outcomes including physiological (cardiometabolic health, physical fitness), psychological (cognitive function, self-control, mental well-being) and social (independent living) variables. The group also has a keen interest in intervention evaluation within these areas, and ultimately harnessing the power of physical activity and nutrition to improve health, well-being, achievement and quality of life.

SHAPE researchers invest a significant amount of time on the dissemination of their research to a non-academic audience. For example, Professor Angus Hunter was recently interviewed by Nigel Farage on GB news on the piloting of banning headers in children's football in England: https://t.co/X8TT6bv68H

Dr Ian Varley has appeared on BBC Radio Five Live to talk about genetic predisposition to injury and sporting prowess. This was also picked up by ABC radio in Australia. Our researchers have written articles for The Conversation that have reached several million readers, with the three articles penned by Dr David Clayton on intermittent fasting being particularly popular, having a total of well over 1 million reads:

• Intermittent fasting: if you're struggling to lose weight, this might be why
• Intermittent fasting is no better than conventional dieting for weight loss new study finds
• Intermittent fasting: the best method

The Conversation articles penned by Dr Neil Williams have also been extremely popular with over 780,000 reads; some of these articles was also featured in the mainstream press:

• What do Olympians actually eat?
• What supplements do scientists use, and why?
• Winter Olympics: why many athletes will be struggling with asthma

Dr Jessica Piasecki appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live discussing her research relating to the starting age of master athletes. Mustafa Sarkar appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live talking about mental health in elite sport and the psychological impact of retirement.

1. The Postpartum Exercise and Return to Fitness: Optimise Readiness For military Mums (PERFORM) study has been designed to restore physical function after childbirth and enable servicewomen to achieve their physical employment standards upon return to duty. This work is based upon a major grant (total £940,677) from the Ministry of Defence to support the work of the Women in Ground Close Combat Team.
2. The Injury and Illness Surveillance Study is conducted by Nottingham Trent University on behalf of the English Football Association (FA) in order to realise their aim of acquiring World-leading status in the treatment and prevention of injury and illness in football. The study, based on three grants from the FA totalling ~200K, currently incorporates >50 teams in both men’s and women’s professional football and the England national teams.
3. HUUB Design are funding and using research to develop clothing solutions for elite endurance athletes. These clothing solutions include fabric development and treatments to influence thermal conductivity by improving sweat evaporation and, thus, athletic performance. The work is part of a PhD studentship between HUUB and the Department of Engineering at NTU.
4. The STEPFORWARD study is a randomised feasibility study that investigates patients’ acceptability of a novel prosthetic device, in older patients with vascular-related amputations and multi-morbidities. This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research through the Research for Patient Benefit Scheme (total £249,737) in collaboration with both academic and national health service partners.

1. Fasey, K. J., Sarkar, M., Wagstaff, C. R., & Johnston, J. (2021). Defining and characterizing organizational resilience in elite sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 52.
2. Townsend, R., Elliott-Sale, K., Currell, K., Tang, J., Fraser, W., & Sale, C. (2017). The effect of post exercise carbohydrate and protein ingestion on bone metabolism. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 49(6), 1209-1218.
3. Barron, D., Ball, G., Robins, M., & Sunderland, C. (2020). Identifying playing talent in professional football using artificial neural networks. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(11-12), 1211-1220.
4. Clayton, D., Burrell, K., Mynott, G., Creese, M., Skidmore, N., Stensel, D., & James, L. (2016). Effect of 24-h severe energy restriction on appetite regulation and ad libitum energy intake in lean men and women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 104(6), 1545-1553.
5. Weedon, G., Wilson, B., Yoon, L., & Lawson, S. (2018). Where's all the 'good' sports journalism? Sports media research, the sociology of sport, and the question of quality sports reporting. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 53(6), 639-667.
6. Matthews, C., & Jordon, M. (in press). Drugs and supplements in amateur boxing: pugilistic amateurism and ideologies of performance. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 12(5), 631-646. .
7. Dring, K., Cooper, S., Morris, J., Sunderland, C., Foulds, G., Pockley, A., & Nevill, M. (2019). Cytokine, glycemic and insulinemic responses to an acute bout of games-based activity in adolescents. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 29(4), 597-605.
8. Saward, C., Morris, J., Nevill, M., Minniti, A., & Sunderland, C. (2020). Psychological characteristics of developing excellence in elite youth football players in English professional academies. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(11-12), 1380-1386.
9. Papageorgiou, M., Martin, D., Colgan, H., Cooper, S., Greeves, J., Tang, J., Sale, C. (2018). Bone metabolic responses to low energy availability achieved by diet or exercise in active eumenorrheic women. BONE, 114, 181-188.
10. Bisele, M., Bencsik, M., Lewis, M., & Barnett, C. (in press). Optimisation of a machine learning algorithm in human locomotion using principal component and discriminant function analyses. PLoS ONE, 12(9), e0183990.

SHAPE has active collaborations locally, nationally and with countries on five continents.  Our collaborations now extend to over twenty countries worldwide, including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong-Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States,

Significant international collaborations include:

• The Applied Physiology and Nutrition Group at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, since 2010. This collaboration focuses upon the biological actions of the histidine containing dipeptide, carnosine, and bone health.
• The University of Limerick (Ireland) and the Sport Ireland Institute. Includes collaboration on a project funded by the Irish Research Council, Enterprise Partnership Scheme relating to the impact of low carbohydrate diets on bone health and (re)modelling in elite endurance athletes.
• The Department of Rehabilitation at Jönköping University, Sweden, since 2013. This collaboration is focused in the area of biomechanics of postural control, balance and falls in prosthesis users.
• The University of British Columbia, Canada, since 2015. This collaboration focuses broadly upon sport journalism.
• Mansoura University, Egypt, since 2019. Research has investigated elite football performance by using machine learning methods to determine key determinants of success and failure. This allows coaches and practitioners to ensure players focus on the key tactics and techniques that will result in performance success.
• The Education University of Hong Kong, since 2015. This collaboration has focused upon the effects of exercise and nutritional interventions on cognitive performance in athletes.