PAfH researchers run workshop on physical activity policy evaluation at HEPA Europe 2026
Researchers from UL HRI’s Physical Activity for Health Research Centre led a three-hour workshop on physical activity policy at the 17th HEPA Europe Conference in Slovenia.
Titled Physical activity policy implementation: Measures, methods and means of evaluation, the workshop shared learnings from the IMPAQT project, a six-country ERA4Health partnership project coordinated by the UL team. The workshop aim was to equip participants with the knowledge, skills and hands-on experience needed to assess the implementation of physical activity policy in their own countries using the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index (PA-EPI) tool.
A little over 20 registered attendees took part in the workshop, drawn from universities, national public health institutes, government ministries and NGOs in a dozen countries across Europe, and from as far afield as Australia. The mix of academic researchers, policymakers and practitioners reflected the workshop's intended audience and resulted in wide-ranging discussion throughout the afternoon.
The programme combined short presentations with facilitated small-group work. Dr Peter Gelius (University of Lausanne) and Dr Enrique Garcia Bengoechea (UL) opened the workshop with a presentation on the fundamentals of physical activity policy. Dr Sven Messing (UL, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg) then provided an overview of existing physical activity policy monitoring tools, distinguishing policy audit from assessment. Dr Petru Sandu (University of Babes-Bolyai) introduced the PA-EPI.
Two interactive sessions facilitated interaction with the tool. In the first, participants debated which good practice statements would deliver the greatest population impact on physical activity if fully implemented. In the second, participants independently rated the extent of implementation of two examples of physical activity policy from different countries.
Dr Kevin Volf (UL) presented on the creation and validation of the national evidence documents that underpin the process, including how policymakers are identified and recruited, and reported that six evidence documents have now been completed by the IMPAQT consortium. Dr Nicole den Braver (Amsterdam UMC) followed with practical guidance on establishing PA-EPI councils, drawing on consortium experience. Professor Catherine Woods then closed the session with a first look at transnational comparison across the consortium.
The workshop's central message was that the PA-EPI process allows a rigorous physical activity policy assessment enabling countries to identify implementation gaps, prioritise the actions needed to close them and comparable.
More information on the work of IMPAQT is available at www.ul.ie/research/impaqt.
