Maastricht University/the UM Sports department is one of the 16 partners in Active Campus Europe, which is a ‘Collaborative Partnership in Health Enhancing Physical Activities’  project. In addition to UM Sports and the Student Sport Center Eindhoven (SSC) at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, the participating higher education institutions come from six other countries: Finland, Ireland, England, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Collaboration

The goal of Active Campus Europe is, among other things, to create a collaboration between higher education institutions that promotes physical activity. To create a healthy work and study environment that encourages healthy behaviour, expertise from the partner institutions will be collected in a Best Practice Handbook that will be publicly available to consult later. In addition, there will be a three-month activation programme to mobilise non-sports-loving students and staff, and to raise awareness about the benefits of an active lifestyle and healthy behaviour. Researchers will analyse the impact and results of this intervention.

Kick-off

The project will run from January 2017 through December 2018. Its official kick-off will take place on Tuesday, 24 January 2017, at 4pm in Maastricht’s provincial government building in the presence of King’s Commissioner Theo Bovens under the name Europe Calling (to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty). The kick-off is part of the two-day milestone meeting on 24 and 25 January, at which all 16 partners will be present.