The EUFITMOS project addresses the following topic: “Encourage participation in sport and physical activity especially by supporting Council Recommendation on HEPA and EU Physical Activity Guidelines”. Following the European recommendations for monitoring fitness, especially in youth, and given the resources that are already available and are underused in this population, the aim of the EUFITMOS project is to create a European network for monitoring fitness in youth in order to use fitness as an indicator of HEPA for individuals, the MS, the scientific community and the public health and education sectors.
The EUFITMOS project will bridge the gaps between knowledge, guidelines, concepts for monitoring and assessment, among countries and among different sets of indicators on fitness.
EUFITMOS TEACHER TRAINING PLATFORM
TEACHER TRAINING PLATFORM is an electronic toolkit that includes the tools, findings, recommendations and tips for physical education teachers to assess fitness. This toolkit supports physical education teachers and countries to assess and monitor fitness in the school context. This resource ultimately helps to generate valid, reliable and comparable data that can be used to design, implement and evaluate effective HEPA policies across Europe.
The EUFITMOS teachers platform (document) is available in 7 languages
EUFITMOS FITNESS TESTING PROTOCOL
The monitoring of physical fitness of adolescents is important because it reflects the impact of genetic and environmental factors on health indicators. Based on the physical fitness level of children, pedagogical, and public health strategies and policies can be developed. In this sense, it is necessary to have a battery of validated fitness tests, capable of assessing physical fitness to obtain data that allow us to determine the level of health and at the same time establish comparisons between.
We intend to apply and disseminate the test battery all over Europe. We further want to encourage researchers to assess the level of physical fitness in adolescents by using this manual because the derived findings will inform the development of pedagogical public health strategies and European physical fitness recommendations.
The EUFITMOS fitness testing protocol is available in additional 6 languages
Spanish 🇪🇸 Portuguese 🇵🇹 Greek 🇬🇷 Montenegro 🇲🇪 German 🇩🇪 Slovenian 🇸🇮
Meet the partners of the project
Faculdade de Motricidade Humana (FMH), Universidade de Lisboa
The Faculdade de Motricidade Humana/Faculty of Human Kinetics (FMH) integrates the University of Lisbon, created in 2013 from the merging of the former Technical University of Lisbon and the University of Lisbon. Currently, it is the biggest University in Portugal, with its 18 Schools, more than 3.500 academic staff and about 48.000 undergraduate and post-graduate students, and 87 recognized research units.
University of Lisbon’s main aim is the development of a research university, committed to education, innovation and technology transfer, focused on people, valuing knowledge, merit, and participation, with an European dimension open to the world, with its wide range of courses and research areas. The FMH is the oldest Faculty of Sports Science and Physical Education in Portugal, and it has a 79 years long history, started in 1940.
Association for the Development of Youth Sports
The Association for the Development of Youth Sports (ADDJ) was founded in 2003 by a group of graduates in Sports Sciences with the aim of developing an appropriate intervention among young people, namely through sports projects in a school context.
ADDJ has a strongly educational approach, adapted to the levels of performance and oriented towards the development of the individual and social capacities of young people. It has a team of qualified trainers and subject to a continuous training program and regular assessments.
At the time, ADDJ continues to work with several schools with different sports (tennis, karate, indoor football) and manage a tennis school in a club.
ADDJ develop projects with a strong educational component and especially aimed at young people (between 4 and 16). It has among its objectives:
– “Promote the development and dissemination of educational and socio-educational activities in the context of leisure activities, holiday camps, teacher training and other educational activities”; – “Integrating young people into society through the practice of sport to avoid social exclusion”; – “Promote and support sporting events and encourage physical activity in an appropriate sociocultural context”.
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe’s top universities. It is committed to excellence in research and teaching, interdisciplinary education and the active promotion of promising young scientists. The university also forges strong links with companies and scientific institutions across the world. TUM was one of the first universities in Germany to be named a University of Excellence. Moreover, TUM regularly ranks among the best European universities in international rankings. The 14 departments of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) provide an excellent environment for research and for the education of 40,124 students, 34% of them women. The university has a budget of EUR 1,329 million, which includes the university hospital.
Sports Union of Slovenia
SUS as the largest sports for all organization connects different sports organizations, associations, clubs and individuals working in the field of sports recreations and sports education in Slovenia. It unites over 200 organisations and has over 60.000 members scattered all over Slovenia. Their common goal is to promote healthy lifestyle and active use of leisure time.
The vision of the Sports Union Slovenia is to be the leading sports organisation in the field of sports recreation and its education in Slovenia, which will seek to approximate recreational sports and physical education for every individual.
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
AUTH is the largest university in Greece, with 11 Faculties organized into 40 Schools. Almost 73,930 under and postgraduate students study at the Aristotle University, the Teaching and Research Staff numbers 2,500 people.
AUTH holds 146 International Scientific Agreements with Universities in Russia, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, the Near, Middle and Far East. Also, it has currently approximately 538 bilateral agreements with European Universities and it has supported the implementation of TEMPUS, JEAN MONNET projects, etc.
University of Montenegro
The University of Montenegro, founded in 1974, is the oldest and the largest scientific-research institution of higher education in Montenegro, with around 21000 students, which is more than 70% of students’ population. Faculty for Sport and Physical Education provides professional education and training of sports professionals and experts in the fields of physical education and sports medicine and is also dedicated to the collection, generation and dissemination of scientific knowledge at the Montenegrin level and beyond. The Faculty is the leading association of sports scientists at the Montenegrin level, which maintains extensive cooperation with the corresponding associations from abroad. Over the past two decades, the Faculty promoted the science and research, with special attention to sports science across Montenegro and beyond. It supports Montenegrin institutions, such as the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Ministry of Science and the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, by offering scientific advice and assistance for carrying out coordinated national and European research projects defined by these bodies. In addition, the Faculty serves as the most important Montenegrin and regional network of sports scientists from all relevant sub disciplines.
Fundación Universidad Isabel I
From the beginning, the main goal of FUI1 has been to contribute to the advancement of society through activities with a strong focus on education, culture, health, science, sport, and the promotion of R&D. The Foundation also works for the inclusion of people at risk of physical, social, and cultural exclusion; the promotion of values such as tolerance, dialogue, and respect for democratic principles; and the development of new information and communication technologies that contribute to human and social progress. The Foundation relies on the staff and expertise of Universidad Isabel I, a provider of online and blended education, with over 5,000 students and more than 200 hundred employees, including teachers, e- learning experts, administrative staff, etc. However, whereas the latter’s core business is to provide private education, the Foundation takes charge of all non-profit activities, as a tool to reinforce the social role which must be played by any higher education institution. Sports and physical activity are a hallmark both at the Foundation and the University. Not only the University has a Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Science with state-of-the art facilities and prominent athletes among the faculty, but also sport, physical education, and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle are paramount across the university.
Coordinator
Objective 1
To obtain a better understanding of the status quo of adolescents’ fitness in Europe and to inform the public health and education sectors about the fitness levels (ranging from primary school to secondary school level) by:
a) Reviewing the literature, identifying the existing systems already implemented/undergoing in each country and identifying best practices.
b) Conducting a study and writing a report on the fitness levels of adolescents from selected EU-countries.
Objective 2
To convert knowledge, experiences and outcomes from former monitoring and assessment batteries of fitness into a comprehensive but applicable:
a) Manual of standardized fitness monitoring, to be used by physical education teachers.
b) Training module for physical education teachers to increase knowledge on health-related fitness and fitness assessment.
c) Toolkit for physical education teachers to prepare and provide adolescents’ assessment of fitness.
Objective 3
To create an European network for monitoring fitness in youth based in an online platform where:
a) The manual of standardized fitness monitoring and the toolkit for physical education teachers will be available.
b) A standardized health-related fitness report for adolescents and their families, based on their fitness evaluation results will be available.
c) An international database with the collected physical fitness data from adolescents from several European countries, to be open and freely used by professional and scientific communities, will be available.
d) Information on fitness from several European countries to be used by public health and other authorities with the aim of monitoring fitness in youth will be available.
Phase 1 – Diagnosis
- Developing an analysis protocol
- Inventory of fitness batteries
- Write scientific paper 1 (diagnosis of best practices)
- Write scientific paper 2 (barriers and facilitators)
- Write scientific paper 3 (secular trends of fitness)
- Develop a diagnosis report
IO3.1., IO3.2., IO3.3., IO3.4.
Phase 2 – Education and training
- Elaboration of the training module
- Creation of the toolkit
- Creation of the manual
- National workshops (E-learning)
IO4.1., IO4.2.
Phase 3 – Data Collection
- Select the sites for data collection
- Collect data in the designated sites
- Assemble the database
- Analyse the data
- Write paper 4 (European adolescents fitness)
IO5.1., IO5.2., IO5.3.
Phase 4 – European youth fitness platform
- Develop the online platform
- Elaborate the platform use guidelines/manual
- Pre-test the online platform
- Maintenance of the online platform
- Standardized health-related fitness report
- Make available online the IO
IO6.1., IO6.2., IO6.3.
Any communication or publication related to the implementation of an annual work programme reflects only the author’s view and Agency and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.