Sport, Health, and the People - A Western Balkan University Network (SHAPE)

The project is aimed to build-up a University Network on Sport in Western Balkans, and design joint actions, in line with the European context and EU recommendations, to promote an active lifestyle in the population, and contribute to community life and sustainable development in the Region. To this effect, the project aims to train sport professionals qualified in specific sport fields as applied to the different needs, and promote personal health, as well as common values such as inclusion, equality, safety, or environmental awareness, thereby contributing to community life and to a peaceful social development.
Sport has extraordinary implications for society and wellbeing. The immense masses of people and socioeconomic interests it moves make it a great driver of economy and development and a relevant contributor to the job market. Sport, in its various expressions, helps social relations, easing tensions and promoting dialogue, mediation, and crisis management. Sport is fundamental for physical and mental health, favours personal growth and emotional maturation, and moves deep psychosocial dimensions, influencing personal and social attitudes and behaviors. Exercise, in appropriate forms, promotes health and fitness and helps to prevent or counter chronic diseases and aging processes, cope with disability, support rehabilitation, and generally foster health and wellbeing at all ages.
In fact, sport is widely promoted by public health and other social bodies and by international organizations (the EU declared 2004 European Year of Education through Sport, and issued Physical Activity Guidelines since 2008; the UN promoted Sport as an Instrument for Education, Health, Development and Peace; UNICEF promoted Sport for Development; the WHO has long recommended
an active lifestyle and launched Sports and health programmes, etc.)1-9.
All this gives sport special relevance in Western Balkans (WB), where health indicators are the lowest in Europe and there are great problems to realize those aspects of inclusion, equality, safety and related social dimensions, that the EU sets as overarching priorities, and are indeed basic conditions for a
healthy community life and a peaceful and harmonious social development.
The project builds on a long history of cooperation among EU and West Balkan (WB) Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the sport area, involving three Tempus Projects and other actions. Overall, these contributed to bring WB institutions, at the time still much focused on old Academies and athleticism, a
bit closer to their EU counterparts, in terms of implementation of the Bologna Process, university organization, teaching programs, relations to the job market etc., and more aware of research progress in sport science and of its relevance in health and other social areas. Mobility has then helped promote international relations and research, also bringing up young scholars with postgraduate degrees in European contexts. Yet, rooted approaches remain in university teaching, research, and organization, and regardless of increased external relations, institutional activities are influenced by local specificities
Call: [ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE]] — [ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE-STRAND-1]
EU Grants: Application form (ERASMUS BB and LS Type II): V2.0 – 01.06.2022
3 and the impact of regional unrest.
The current project is aimed to overcome the limits of isolated actions and promote a collective, comprehensive effort to use the great potential of sport, in its various expressions, to help meeting the health and social needs of the Region and bring it closer to the rest of Europe. Previous and new WB
HEIs have joined to that effect in the project, along with two EU Universities which led all previous actions, and other contributing partners. Their strong cohesion and commitment can ensure an effective and efficient action, followed by a wide promotion of the results in the Region at large.
The project will be developed over the three years through progressive and interactive actions, and be broken down into Work Packages (WP), representing smaller and more manageable parts of the project, to be developed with specific responsibilities among partners according to a general planning.