On Thursday 21st January 2021, at 2 pm, the consortium of the project Women’s Involvement in Steady Exercise (WISE) held an online kick-off meeting (KoM) to start the project and set the future actions for its proper implementation.
WISE is a 30-month project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Sport of the European Union aiming at creating and spreading a specific exercise programme for girls aged 15-24. The programme will allow sports professionals and facilities – as well as health professionals – to identify the best sports and physical activities to involve young women in practicing regular exercise and avoid their drop out of such activities in different EU countries.
The collaborative partnership, coordinated by the European Platform for Sport Innovation – EPSI (Belgium), includes the following partners which participated in the meeting:
- University “Union – Nikola Tesla”, Faculty of Sport – FZS (Serbia)
- European Culture and Sport Organization – ECOS (Italy)
- Kinetic Analysis – KA (The Netherlands)
- University of Valencia – UoV (Spain)
- SPORTLAB S.S.D.A.R.L. – SPORTLAB (Italy)
Across the EU, men exercise, play sport or engage in other physical activity more than women. This disparity is particularly marked in the 15-24 age group, with young men tending to exercise or play sport on a regular basis considerably more than young women. In particular, the difference between men and women is strongest in the younger age groups: just 15% of men aged 15-24 never exercise or play sport, compared with 33% of women in the same age group.
The consortium of WISE aims at tackling such gender gap by involving young women in regular physical activity through an innovative programme shared at European level and including also bioimpedance analyses, nutrition tips and technological devices.
During the KoM, the consortium of WISE has taken the first step towards achieving its set goals by electing the Steering Committee as well as the Scientific Committee. The Steering and Scientific Committees will concretely support the consortium with the definition of common strategies and implementation of the project activities, as well as advise and evaluate the WISE project and its programme. #BeWISE!