The merged research group MOVE (= former BEGE+BEPR+MODI groups) was founded in 2020, with Prof. Dr. Eva D’Hondt as current chair, and is part of the Department of Movement and Sport Sciences (BESW) of the Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy (LK). The ‘Movement and Nutrition for Health and Performance’ research group unites the enthusiasm and expertise of young and more experienced researchers, focusing on 3 prominent lines of research.

1. Health

 Research into:

- Health-related behavior, including the measurement and analysis of physical activity, sedentary behavior, physical fitness, exercise/movement patterns, diet and sleep.

- Determinants to promote physical activity and to reduce sedentary behavior, both at the individual and environmental level.

- Determinants of nutritional habits and specific dietary patterns, both at the individual and environmental level.

- Energy-balance related behavior linked to well-being in different populations, with specific attention to critical transition periods during the life course.

- The economic evaluation of clinical protocols and health interventions.

- Body composition, growth and development.

 2. Performance

Research into:

- Factors influencing sports performance from different perspectives:

• Biomechanical analysis (2D/3D) of sport specific movements.
• Technical and tactical aspects of different sports and disciplines.
• Nutritional aspects linked to sport specific body and performance characteristics.
• Physical and psychological aspects linked to different sports and disciplines.
• Growth and morphologic development in relation to sport specific performance.

- The development and assessment of effective training programs.

- Facilitating and supporting progress and achievements in elite sport as well as in sport participation at every level for different target and age groups.

 3. Motoriek en didactiek

 Research into:

- The promotion of ‘physical literacy’, linked to aspects of motor skills, pedagogy and didactics, both at the level of the individual, (educational) practice and (health) policy.

- Motor competence as building block for a physically active lifestyle, including the development and validation of new tools to assess actual and/or perceived competence in different movement contexts.

- The role of motor coordination (in combination with growth, development, maturity, body composition, etc.) in the context of health in the general population, and more specifically injury prevention within (elite) youth sports.

- Fundamental and applied biomechanics as well as motor control in various target populations.

- Pedagogical and didactic methods in the interest of creating more effective, efficient, motivating and activating learning environments promoting movement and health.

- The assessment of  (independent vs. supervised) self-study and integrated forms of evaluation within health-related educational programs.