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Dr Arnautovska is a psychologist with 20 years' experience spanning clinical practice and research in mental health, with a focus on health behaviour change and neuroscience. Her research translates evidence into real-world care, closing the gap between what mental health treatments can achieve and what is sustainable in individuals' everyday lives and in health services more broadly.

Her work addresses a critical structural divide: clinicians who lack the time or resourcing to address lifestyle factors, health services organised around separate physical and mental health pathways, and people with complex mental illness or those with cognitive challenges who are rarely equipped with the tools to change health behaviours on their own. Dr Arnautovska's research is focused on embedding physical health care into routine mental health treatment, so that monitoring and supporting a person's physical health becomes as standard as supporting their mental state.

She led the development of SMART, a world-first SMS-based lifestyle intervention targeting metabolic health tailored to people living with severe mental illness, delivered without reliance on smartphones or app-based platforms. SMART was developed through a comprehensive co-design process with multidisciplinary experts, clinicians, and people with lived experience, and is now being implemented within routine care at four mental health services in metropolitan Brisbane.

Consumer partnership is central to Dr Arnautovska's approach to research; she facilitates the involvement of people with lived experience across all phases of the research cycle, from priority-setting and study design through to evaluation and implementation, while actively supporting the research capacity of lived experience partners.

Dr Arnautovska has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and is a named investigator on projects attracting more than $14.5M in funding since 2021, including a $5M NHMRC Synergy Grant. Her contributions have been recognised through the Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET) Emerging Leader Mid-Career Researcher award (2024), the UQ Rising Star Commendation (2024), and earlier BA and PhD Thesis awards (2017 and 2006).

Central to her research philosophy is the view that motivation and a person's agency are central elements of treatment outcomes and determine whether novel, health behaviour-focused interventions succeed and whether their impact is sustainable.

Dr Arnautovska grew up in Slovenia, where social justice and equality were formative family values that continue to inform her approach to health equity in her research today.

Dr George Thomas is a Research Fellow in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland and a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. His research focuses on children’s digital technology use, family digital routines, healthy screen use, and child health and wellbeing.

George leads an integrated program of research focused on understanding and improving how families manage children’s screen use. His work spans digital health, behavioural science, public health, and research translation through partnerships with government and industry.

His research has informed international policy and guidelines, including reports from UNESCO and the World Health Organization, and contributes to global initiatives such as the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance.

George is also committed to education and mentorship, having supervised more than 40 student research projects across psychology, dietetics, and exercise science, and supporting students to work on real-world policy and community initiatives.

Dr Mike Trott is a Research Fellow with the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), The University of Queensland, where he serves as Section Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics within the Physical and Mental Health Research Group. He specialises in lifestyle psychiatry, clinical trials, and psychiatric epidemiology, with a particular focus on addressing the physical health inequities faced by people with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses.

His current research program addresses three major themes:

• Physical activity and sedentary behaviour – understanding their impact on mental and physical health and developing interventions, including the effectiveness of movement breaks to reduce sedentary time and cardiometabolic risk in people with schizophrenia, and the risk profiles of different types of sedentary behaviours.
• Clinical trials – leading the methodological and statistical aspects of a national platform of several schizophrenia clinical trials to find strategies to improve mental and physical health in this population
• Pharmacoepidemiology - using statewide and national linked data to determine the comparative effectiveness of clozapine augmentation strategies for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, as well as examining the mortality gap in several mental illness vs the general population.

James Woodforde is a lecturer in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland. His research centres on physical activity in children and young people, with a specific focus on the school setting. James’s PhD research examined physical activity in the before-school segment, drawing on a variety of data sources and engaging with school stakeholders to develop a comprehensive understanding of physical activity patterns and influences during this time of day.

Associate Professor Carl Woods is a theoretical skill acquisition scientist, studying human-environment interactions at the intersection of sport science, ecological psychology and social anthropology. In addition to his appointment at the University of Queensland, he is the Learning Design Lead at the Queensland Academy of Sport, and Learning Design National Discipline Lead for Australian Athletics.

Carl has a unique blend of theoretical and applied experiences, having held research leadership positions within the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University, while coordinating coaching science, skill acquisition, and innovation within the Australian Football League.

Given these diverse experiences, his research spans three major themes: 1) theoretical advancements to the field of sport science; 2) exploring ways of fostering human-environment interactions through the promotion of ecologically literate behaviour; 3) addressing practical challenges in sport related to performance preparation, practice task design, and coach education.