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Activity Funded

Research Unit for Sport and Physical Activity

Centro de Investigação do Desporto e Actividade Física/Universidade de Coimbra

Reference
UIDP/04213/2020
Project Start Date
2020-01-01
Project End Date
2024-12-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Medical and health sciences
Funding Program
Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Programático

Abstract

10.2 Summary in English for general dissemination purposes SCOPE AND SUBJECT Sport as a social fact is visible in the contexts of training, exercise and leisure, once as it corresponds to emerging socio-professional domains that clearly claim for supervision. Statistics in competitive sports illustrate an impressive dynamics: 260.000 practitioners in 1996, and, currently,>500.000. Meantime, exercise reveals a remarkable strength in new jobs. Physical activity (occupational, mobility, leisure) and the limits of performance are the primary object of CIDAF. It will be around this main construct with multiple dimensions that scientific disciplines will be organized. The University of Coimbra is in the pole position for the emergence of innovative and multidisciplinary projects combining CIDADF and other units: CIAS (Physical Anthropology), IBILI (Faculty of Medicine), ADAI (Development of Industrial Aerodynamics). YOUNG RESEARCHERS (STRUCTURAL ELEMENT) The doctoral course has a functional relationship with CIDAF. Young researchers will be the crucial element. They are being systematically exposed to incoming flows of internationally outstanding researchers, but also have the opportunity to contact with foreign units of excellence. International and multidisciplinary co-orientation processes will be encouraged, looking for profiles with solid basic contents combined with innovation and technology. OBJECTIVES AND TOPICS The physically educated citizen is the reference frame for the research and, in a social context often pointed as hypokinetic. Studies will be aimed to examine physical activity and fitness levels of the organic systems. Additionally, longitudinal (developmental) studies will be performed and it is believed that they would summarize the effects of training, growth and maturation including body composition on sports performance particularly physiological indicators of the metabolic pathways and neuromuscular performance. Recent research was successfully done mainly on field tests (motor tasks) Regarding the elite adult athletes, the best indicators will be sought to monitor the process of adaptation to progressively more extreme training loads. Studies dedicated to the immune response in long-term sports will be continued and will be added to the collection of data pertaining to cognitive processes that enable the maximum expression of the sport performance and prevention of injury, disease, demotivation and dropout. The ageing @ coimbra consortium, in partnership with foreign universities, represents an advance in the study of models aimed to understand the crucial elements for the promotion of quality of life associated to aging. The study of the adaptive response of the elderly athlete and the elderly former athlete will be considered. These research options will intermediate the institutional relationship with schools, local and national sport organizations (clubs, federations and associations), exercise academies and foundations dedicated to the areas of leisure and health. 10.3 Summary in English for evaluation INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY, PEOPLE AND FACTS The Faculty was formally created in 1992 and its first generation of researchers was trained under the supervision and/or co-supervision of international prominent researchers. The Center of Biokinetics (CEB) was evaluated in 2003 by FCT and classified as “very good”. In 2009, a PhD academic program was launched including several branches assuming the multidisciplinary nature of the research unit, it was decided to re-name the research unit from CEB to Research Center for Sport and Physical Activity (CIDAF). The emphasis is on human variability broadly defined and applied to sport and exercise including conceptual and methodological approaches from multiple disciplines such as anatomy, anthropometry, physiology, auxology biochemistry, biomechanics, motor development, motor learning andcontrol, performance analysis, sports medicine, health. CIDAF is reasonably described in its website. It is currently composed of 18 integrated members, 10 PhD collaborators and 11 PhD-candidates. Taking into account the criteria of productivity (1 manuscript per year in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor by Thomson Reuters), the past activity is well summarized in numbers (n=227): 2013 (n=38), 2014 (n=53), 2015 (n=49), 2016 (n=40) and 2017 (n=47). Compared to past external evaluation (2008-2012), the total number of manuscript substantially increased. Quality was also increased as demonstrated by publication in all top journals in the field: Sports Medicine; Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise; British Journal of Sports Medicine; Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports; Exercise Immunology Review; International Journal of Sports Medicine; Journal of Sports Sciences; Pediatric Exercise Sciences. See: http://www.uc.pt/fcdef/Investigacao/CIDAF_2/Publicacoes_2/Periodicos_internacionais_arbitrados_impacto FOCAL TOPICS (strategy for the interaction of small groups) Two axes are emphasized: the life cycle (early childhood to old age) and context (health promotion, education, optimization of performance). The ongoing research projects are deliberately focused in a small number of topics that mirror the interdisciplinary perspectives organized through the lifecycle: (i) developmental understanding of the independent and combined effects of growth, maturation, physical activity –measured using accelerometry - and training on morphology and functional capacities including field tests and the laboratory protocols to assess metabolic pathways and neuromuscular factors; (ii) adaptive responses to training among elite high-performance athletes including simulated extreme conditions; (iii) effectiveness of sport participation – recreational and competitive – and exercise in the promotion, maintenance and prevention of age-related decline on health status, quality of life, cognition, motor control and social autonomy. ADVANCED ACADEMIC PROGRAMS: re-organization Senior researchers from other faculties (Medical School, Economics, Psychology, Human Biology) are teaching in academic programs offered by CIDAF. In addition, integrated members also participate in master and PhD programs at Faculties. This situation provides access to a variety of concepts and methods and several collaborative projects are now being developed with the group of Physical Anthropology, the Flow Cytometry Unit-Clinical Pathology Service, Coimbra University hospital, the Portuguese Institute of Blood and Transplantation, IBILI (endocrinology and metabolism, histocompatibility, ageing). As a result, students have the potential to participate in a variety of multidisciplinary projects demanding the application of a large spectrum of concepts and instruments: field tests, body composition, laboratory ergometry, cellular and molecular biology techniques and psychological assessment. CIDAF supports crucial advanced academic programs that are currently running. Advanced education is composed of five masters: a Msc in “Teaching Physical Education”, another that has just been refined from “Youth Sport” into “Sport Training”, and three others (“Biokinetics”, “Physical Activity in School Context”, “Exercise and Health in Special Groups”) that are being fused into a new program titled “Exercise and Applied Physiology”. The above master courses provide a sound base for the PhD program in Sport Science which comprises the branches: (a) Sport Training, (b) Physical Activity and Health, (c) Physical Education, (d) Adapted Physical Activity, (e) Sport Management. LINKING INTERNATIONALIZATION AND THE COMMUNITY International visibility is evident in the outgoing missions of teaching staff (about 10 per year) and also of young researchers to international units and universities (Texas, Saskatchewan, Groningen, Loughborough, Orléans, Clermont-Ferrand). In parallel, several intensive programs combining invited international faculty and students from Coimbra and other universities have been promoted. At the moment, University of Coimbra possesses bilateral agreement for mobility comprising 92 universities from 25 countries. Additionally, CIDAF organized the 2013 meeting of the Pediatric Work Physiology Group and the 2017 edition of the International Society for Exercise and Immunology Symposium. CIDAF is collaborating with the Portuguese Institute of Youth and Sports, with several federations that choose the Midlands to implement elite training centers (Triathlon, Swimming, Cycling, Gymnastics, Judo, Facing, Canoeing, Rowing), and has been involved in coaching education. It also promotes non-academic education with the annual FORUM for local technicians and the general public. Finally, CIDAF is an active member of the AGING@COIMBRA consortium that promotes social and economic development innovative practices.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Investigação do Desporto e da Actividade Física (CIDAF-UC)
  • Universidade de Coimbra (UC)

Funding 235.000,00 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

235.000,00 €