The Department of Physical Education & Sport Science, University of Thessaly in collaboration with the Institute of Educational Policy and the Ministry of Education and Science will organize a conference on Friday, November 29, 2019 at 9.30-15.00 at the French Institute, Sina 31, Athens, entitled “Identifying and Motivating Youth Who Most Need Physical ACTivity” (IMPACT). This is the final event of a European project coordinated by the Department of Physical Education & Sport Science, University of Thessaly, led by Professor Athanasios Papaioannou. The results of the project that will be presented at this event include the following:

1. results about the low levels of physical activity and motivation of 14039 European pupils and students (3017 from Greece),
2. the new tools that were developed and the features of the training provided to over 350 physical education teachers in 4 countries,
3. the increase in levels of physical activity and pupils’ motivation through targeted training of in-service physical education teachers who collaborated with researchers,
4. the recommendations stemming from these unique results in Europe for policy makers in sport and education, physical education curricula, and training for in-service teachers, parents as well as executives in ministries and local authorities, parents,

in order to achieve the World Health Organization's recommendations for 15-18 year-old children and adolescents for “at least one hour of moderate-intensity daily exercise”:

https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_young_people/en/  

Attached is the Conference program: http://www.iep.edu.gr/el/deltia-typou-genika/24-11-2019-programma-telikis-ekdilosis-sto-plaisio-tou-evropaikoy-ergou-impact

And the IMPACT project website: https://www.impactpe.eu/site/index.php/en/

Six European Universities, Four European Educational Authorities and three European Physical Education Associations in Trikala for the Implementation of a European Project 

On Monday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 21 the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences of the University of Thessaly arranged a meeting among leading professors and researchers in Sport Psychology and Physical Education (PE) from six leading universities in sport science, in Europe (Greece, Spain , England, France, Turkey, Italy), representatives from 3 European Ministries of Education (Greece, France, Turkey), and 3 European PE Associations (European PE Association, Germany, Italy). This was the first (Kick-off) meeting of this research consortium, focused on the initiation of research and educational activities related to the implementation of the European IMPACT Project (Identifying and Motivating youth who mostly need Physical ACTivity).

The IMPACT project will be carried out from 2017 to 2019 in six European countries, in cooperation with the educational institutions of these countries. It aims at developing a European policy for the promotion of extracurricular sport and physical activity and at ensuring the children’s and adolescents’ health through physical education. 

It will involve more than 2000 students from each country, from 10 to 18 years. The Project coordinator, at European level, is Professor Papaioannou Athanasios and a team of researchers from the School of Physical Education and Sport Sciences of the University of Thessaly, who will collaborate with executives and researchers from 12 European partners for the implementation of the program. 

The project is directly financed by the European Community, after successful application to the competitive ERASMUS+ SPORT program.