Sinéad holden is an Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow at the School of Public,  Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science UCD. She is program director of the BSc Health and Performance Science/ Sport, Health and Exercise Science Program. 

Her research interests include supporting safe and continued participation in sport and exercise, with a particular emphasis on the critical developmental phases of adolescence. She also has an interest in leveraging wearable and health data analytics  to optimize strategies for enhancing human health, well-being, and athletic performance. 

Sinéad leads several strategic research initiatives, including the HEA-funded initiative "RID Injury" (Understanding Risk and IDentification of Musculoskeletal Injury in Adolescent Sports), which integrates mobile and wearable health technology to understand and mitigate injury risks in youth sports. She is actively involved in research on women in sport, including leading the "Cyclesync" program, which investigates the relationship between ovarian hormone profiles on wearable derived biometric data. Sinéad collaborates with national governing bodies, sports clubs, and schools to ensure her research has practical applications. She is deeply committed to research integrity, open science, and stakeholder engagement.