The Active Living Research 2014 Conference: “Niche to norm”

•The 2014 Active Living Research Conference highlighted movement in taking active living from “niche to norm” in public health and advocacy organizations, among government officials, and to a global stage.•Opportunities exist to advance active living from an emerging research field with limited impact to well-accepted findings that guide every day decision-making across various sectors to create more active and safe communities.•There are many evidence-based strategies for physical activity promotion in schools. While some improvement in implementation is seen, papers in this supplement also document continuing barriers.•More attention is needed to ensure that environments designed for active living are the norm, and policies are in place to ensure equal access to safe places and effective programs to support active living.