Table 1 Glossary of terms

Citizen science

Citizen science enables members of the public (‘citizen scientists’) to actively contribute to the scientific research process. Citizen scientists may be involved in a range of research activities, including developing research questions, designing project methodologies, data collection and analysis, and discussing, interpreting and disseminating research results

Health promotion

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health [43]. This is achieved by increasing control over the determinants of health (e.g., factors related to the social and economic environment, physical environment and the characteristics and behaviours of individuals). There are five priority action areas for health promotion as outlined in the Ottawa Charter [43]. These include to build healthy public policy; create supportive environments for health; strengthen community action for health; develop personal skills; and re-orient health services

Policy and practice stakeholders

Policy and practice stakeholders are those who work within organisations responsible for health and wellbeing (e.g., health promotion agencies, local councils, and local health districts). This may include policymakers and practitioners in health promotion and public health involved in decisions regarding the funding, design, implementation, and/or evaluation of public health policies, programs and services

Knowledge mobilisation

Knowledge mobilisation involves the co-production of research between academic and non-academic partners with the aim to ensure research evidence is both relevant and useful for society and those making evidence informed decisions in practice. As described by Phipps et al. [44] “Knowledge mobilisation helps make academic research accessible to non-academic audiences and supports collaborations between academic researchers and non-academic partners such as community-based organisations”

Capacity building

Capacity building in health promotion has been defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “the development of knowledge, skills, commitment, partnerships, structures, systems and leadership to enable effective health promotion actions” [43]. Capacity building interventions are actions to improve health through the advancement of knowledge and skills among policy and practice stakeholders, expansion of organisational support and infrastructure, and the fostering of partnerships for community health [43, 45]