Stuart Fairclough is Professor of Physical Activity, Health, & Wellbeing at Edge Hill University. He is a member of the senior management team in the Department of Sport and Physical Activity, is the Department Research and Research Coordinator, and is on the Management Group of the University’s Health Research Institute.

Professor Fairclough was awarded his PhD from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in 2005, having completed his MSc in Sports Science (1997) at Loughborough University, and BEd (Hons) in Physical Education (1994) at LJMU. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (CASES) and a CASES Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist.

Professor Fairclough’s research focuses on 24-hour movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep) health, and wellbeing with an emphasis on children and young people and the role of schools in activity and health promotion. He has expertise in novel accelerometer metrics and analysis approaches to better understand the relationships between movement behaviours and health and wellbeing. His research aligns to the behavioural epidemiological framework with key aspects relating to physical activity and sedentary behaviour measurement, their correlates, and interventions to change activity behaviours and health outcomes. He sits on the UK Chief Medical Officers' Expert Group for Physical Activity in Children and Young People which developed the 2019 UK Physical Activity Guidelines, and is a panel member for the England Report Card as part of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. He was a Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 Panel Member for Unit 24 (Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism). Professor Fairclough has published over 170 peer-review journal articles, supervised 23 PhD students to completion, and examined 25 PhD candidates. He is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Youth Physical Activity and an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Activity, Sedentary, and Sleep Behaviors, and the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. 

Stuart oversees and teaches on the BA (Hons) Physical Education and School Sport programme. He contributes to physical activity and health, research skills, and dissertation modules.