IMPAQT at the HEPA Europe 2026 Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia
The IMPAQT consortium met at the annual HEPA conference, hosted this year in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Across four days, IMPAQT researchers led a dedicated pre-conference workshop, contributed to a second workshop on physical activity policy monitoring, presented in a full symposium on the project's findings, and delivered further presentations on physical activity policy development in Romania and the possibility of using the PA-EPI at a local-level.
Monday, 7th of September
The IMPAQT ran its PA-EPI training workshop Physical activity policy implementation: Measures, methods and means of evaluation in the morning. The workshop familiarised participants with the 45 indicators of the PA-EPI Framework and the eight step PA-EPI process. Participants discussed policy examples and received hands-on experience in comparative policy assessment.
An afternoon workshop, Sharing Experiences and Increasing Capacity in Physical Activity Policy Monitoring and Evaluation, had a broader focus. This workshop included IMPAQT researchers Petru Sandu, Kevin Volf and Sven Messing among its presenters. The workshop combined presentations, country-specific vignettes and small-group work.
Tuesday, 8th of September
The conference officially began on Tuesday the 8th. In a presentation titled Mechanisms shaping inequity in physical activity-related policy systems: an expert-based conceptual systems model, Fleur Heuvelman presented work showing how socioeconomic inequities in physical activity are reinforced by systemic dynamics within policy processes. Her causal loop diagram revealed three core dynamics through which these processes fail to support equity: (1) the fragmented embedding of physical activity policy, combined with a narrow, health-focused approach to evaluation; (2) non-inclusive physical activity policy development processes; and (3) the institutional equation of physical activity with sport.
Wednesday, 9th of September
The consortium's flagship session of the conference was a dedicated IMPAQT symposium with four presentations showcasing core findings from across the consortium's six countries. Kevin Volf and Petru Sandu presented Creating the PA-EPI Evidence Document: Learnings from Romania and Ireland, Rasa Jankauskienė presented Validating the PA-EPI Evidence Document: Reflections on collaborating with policymakers from Poland and Lithuania and Leonie Birkholz and Nicole Den Braver presented Stakeholder engagement in benchmarking physical activity policy implementation and developing policy recommendations: Learnings from Germany and the Netherlands. Professor Catherine Woods presented Comparing physical activity policy implementation across six EU member states: Preliminary results of the IMPAQT project providing a comparative overview of the across the six countries. The session concluded with a policymaker panel discussing how they use the PA-EPI framework. Taken together, the session offered the HEPA Europe audience a rare, unified view of physical activity policy implementation across Europe.
Thursday, 10th of September
On the final day of the conference, IMPAQT contributed two further presentations. Laszlo Peter presented Mapping Urban Design Policies for PA: An Analysis of the Romanian Policy Environment – Gaps and Challenges which discussed the implementation of urban design policies and infrastructure development in Romania.
Leonie Birkholz presented How can the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index be used at the local level? Results from an expert survey in European countries showing the responses to a survey that inquires into how the PA-EPI framework may need to be adapted for use at a subnational level.
Looking Ahead
HEPA Europe 2026 gave the IMPAQT consortium a platform to share two and a half years of policy research with the wider physical activity research and policy community. IMPAQT will continue its dissemination efforts with national and international physical activity policymakers.
Hvala, HEPA in Slovenija.
