About Us

The National Centre of Implementation Science (NCOIS) is an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence. 

NCOIS brings together researchers and end-user organisations including experts from Australia, as well as internationally to optimise methods in implementation and research translation in chronic disease prevention within community settings.  

NCOIS focuses on prevention strategies related to diet, physical activity, weight status, tobacco and alcohol, in community settings, such as early childhood education and care, schools, sporting clubs and workplaces.

Our mission is to work collaboratively with our partners towards achieving our VISION: to improve the preventive health system to keep people chronic disease free for longer.

To do this we:  undertake research, build research capacity, foster partnerships, and utilise knowledge translation strategies to provide better evidence aligned to the needs of public health decision makers more quickly.

Our research transfer strategy is shaped by the knowledge translation research we conduct and insights from evaluating strategies within our centre. These efforts have resulted in an average of 0.6 policy mentions per publication, with 37% of our publications ranked among the top 10% most cited worldwide (Altmetric 2024).

Our approach will prevent chronic disease by enabling the timely selection and implementation of the most impactful interventions best suited to local contexts.

• We will seek to reduce inequities in the chronic disease burden experienced by vulnerable persons and communities through the research we conduct, the partnerships we form and the capacity building opportunities we provide.
• We will invest in activities that support equity focused research including through our governance, consultations, capacity building and workforce.

Our focus is on closing the gap between evidence and practice in the implementation of chronic disease prevention policies, programs and practices within community settings.

One of the greatest barriers to improving public health is the large gap between what research indicates will improve health and what is actually implemented in everyday practice. For example, many types of cancer occurring today could be prevented if interventions already known to be effective in addressing risks were successfully implemented.

NCOIS seeks to close this gap, by generating an evidence-base to guide optimal implementation of prevention strategies in community settings.

NCOIS focuses on the following primary modifiable risks for chronic disease, as specified by the World Health Organisation:

• Diet
• Physical Activity
• Weight Status
• Tobacco
• Alcohol use
   

NCOIS focuses on generating evidence to support optimal implementation of chronic disease prevention interventions in community (non-clinical) settings, including:

Early Childhood Education and Care
Schools
Sporting Clubs
Workplaces

NCOIS foundation research projects are a collaboration between The University of Newcastle and partnering academic institutions.

The administration and coordination of the NCOIS will be based at the University of Newcastle, with our partner universities and institutes including:

• University of Newcastle
• University of Sydney
• The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
• Monash University
• Deakin University
• Central Queensland University

The following organisations are our formal translation partners, however the NCOIS also collaborates with a broader list of partners, on a project by project basis:

• NSW Ministry of Health
• Hunter New-England Local Health District
• Mid North Coast Local Health District
• Central Coast Local Health District
• Alcohol and Drug Foundation
• NSW Cancer Council
• The NSW Heart Foundation
• The Australian Council for Health Physical Education and Recreation, NSW
• Early Learning and Care Council of Australia
• The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre
• Preventive Health SA