Charlotte Edwardson
Charlotte is a world-leading researcher in physical activity interventions and accelerometry, whose work has had significant academic and public health impact.
She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate training at Loughborough University, culminating in a PhD in Physical Activity and Health (2010). Early in her career, she worked as a Research Associate specialising in physical activity interventions in young people before moving into diabetes prevention research at University Hospitals of Leicester, where she contributed to and helped lead large-scale randomised controlled trials targeting physical activity and sedentary behaviour in individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes.
In 2013, Charlotte was appointed Lecturer in the Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Leicester, becoming Associate Professor in 2016 and Professor in 2023. Over the past decade, she has co-led, with Professor Yates, the development of the Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group, an internationally recognised group focused on understanding how movement behaviours can prevent and manage long-term conditions such as type 2 diabetes. In 2024, she secured £14 million from Research England through the Expanding Excellence scheme to further expand this work, growing the group to over 60 researchers and PhD students; she serves as Deputy Director.
She has led and co-led large randomised controlled trials of physical activity and sedentary behaviour change interventions across a range of populations and settings. For example, she led the largest multi-site cluster randomised controlled trial worldwide of a novel sitting reduction intervention in desk-based workers across local government in England. She is also part of the team that developed, evaluated, and implemented the SHIFT (Structured Health Intervention for Truckers) programme, which has received national recognition and is now embedded in professional training for HGV drivers within UK logistics companies, benefiting thousands of drivers.
Charlotte is internationally recognised for her expertise in accelerometry. She has been instrumental in developing widely used methods for processing accelerometer data, which are now adopted by researchers globally. She has also led the development of infrastructure to embed objective measurement of physical behaviours across large-scale studies within the Leicester Diabetes Centre and the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, enabling accelerometer assessment in over 14,000 participants over the past 15 years. Her leadership in this field is reflected in her role as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour (2023–present) and her membership of the UK Biobank Wearables Working Group (2024–present).
Her research has directly informed national and international physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines, contributing to improvements in public health policy and practice. It has also inspired the development of commercial self-monitoring technologies and received extensive positive media coverage, highlighting its relevance and reach beyond academia.
Charlotte co-led the University of Leicester’s submission to Unit of Assessment 24 in REF 2021—the University’s first submission to this unit—which ranked second out of 61 UK higher education institutions. She currently sits on the UoA24 criteria-setting and assessment panel for REF 2029.
She has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 58) and secured approximately £25 million in research funding from major funders, including NIHR, MRC, UKRI, and the European Commission.
Favourite way to be active
Exercise classes such as Dancefit, Body Pump and Body Combat.
Contact
ce95@leicester.ac.uk
Research Areas
Current Projects
Walking exercise behaviour-change in people with intermittent claudication: A multi methods research programme including the MOtivating Structured walking Activity in Intermittent Claudication (MOSAIC2) randomised controlled trial.
A randomised controlled trial of the Snacktivity intervention
Transforming the Health of healthcaRe workers through behavioural InterVentions and Engagement: THRIV
Comparison of wearable and nearable research-grade and consumer devices that measure daily physical behaviour (sleep, sitting and physical activity)
Collecting and utiliSing accElerometer data from patients in earLy phasECancer Trials to assess physical activity and fatigue (SELECT study)
Accelerometer-assessed physical behaviours in people with long-terms conditions: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Sedentary behaviour in people with Peripheral Arterial Disease
Feasibility and acceptability of a sedentary behaviour reduction programme in people with Peripheral Arterial Disease
Accelerometer-assessed physical behaviour during pregnancy in women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes
Past Projects
A three arm cluster randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the SMART Work & Life intervention for reducing daily sitting time in office workers
The Regulate your Sitting Time (RESIT) intervention for reducing sitting time in individuals with type 2 diabetes
Comparison of postural and physical activity metrics from different accelerometer brands worn on the thigh
Equivalency of sleep estimates: Comparison of three-research grade accelerometers worn on both wrists
Criterion validity of an automated sleep detection algorithm applied to data from three research-grade accelerometers worn on each wrist with concurrent laboratory-based polysomnography (PSG)