The state of Tyrol supports an endowed professorship
- Endowed professorship “Active mobility – exercise in leisure time and everyday life” bundles competencies from mobility, health, climate and tourism
- The state of Tyrol will provide half a million euros until 2027
- Close cooperation with various fields of work at the University of Innsbruck such as traffic and mobility planning, tourism and leisure planned
- Endowed professorship is part of the first package of measures of the Tyrolean sustainability and climate strategy
How can active mobility – i.e. covering everyday and leisure routes by bike or on foot – be promoted? What lasting effects does active mobility have? Which challenges have to be considered in the field of mobility development? A new research focus at the University of Innsbruck will be devoted to these and many other questions in the future. At the request of the State Councilor for Science Cornelia Hagele The Tyrolean state government recently decided to provide 500,000 euros for the next five years for the endowed professorship “Active mobility – exercise in leisure time and everyday life”. A central focus of the professorship is the bundling of competencies from the fields of mobility, sport, health, climate and tourism.
New research field at the Institute for Sports Science
The professorship will be established at the Institute for Sports Science in close cooperation with the “Intelligent Transport Systems” department of the Institute for Infrastructure and the Research Center for Tourism and Leisure at the University of Innsbruck. The research focus is on interdisciplinary mobility research, especially in the area of promoting active forms of mobility and the associated sustainable exercise in leisure time and everyday life. In teaching, walking and cycling should be developed and implemented as climate-friendly and health-promoting mobility. The research focus “Active Mobility” is thus integrated into the relevant range of courses at the Institute for Sports Science. “The new endowed professorship will establish interdisciplinary access to the topic of mobility research. It is important to deal with innovative approaches and solutions for sustainable mobility development and to take into account the interfaces between health, climate and economy in Tyrol. By financing the endowed professorship, we are helping to promote the training of experts in the field of mobility development. In doing so, we are once once more strengthening Tyrol as a science location, which above all deals with current and future-oriented topics,” says Science Minister Hagele.
Tyrolean sustainability and climate strategy is implemented
The co-financing of the endowed professorship is part of the first of three action programs of the Tyrolean sustainability and climate strategy. The strategy aims to transform Tyrol into a climate-neutral and sustainable economy and society by 2030. Around 200 concrete initiatives will be implemented in the first program of measures up to 2024 – including the endowed professorship. “How we will get around in the future, which sustainable means of transport and routes we will use and what influence sustainable mobility has on the development of our country – all these questions are part of the Tyrolean sustainability and climate strategy. I am pleased that we are also giving this topic greater importance on a scientific level and that we will have more experts in this field available in the future,” said the Mobility Provincial Council René Zumtobel.
“By integrating several faculties and areas of competence at the University of Innsbruck, the special features of tourism and the Alpine region can be taken into account in addition to active mobility in everyday life,” emphasizes the Rector of the University of Innsbruck Tilmann Mark. As part of the research focus, concepts are to be developed in an interdisciplinary exchange with various fields of work at the university that promote a sustainable change in mobility behavior and ensure a comprehensive discourse on mobility, traffic planning, activity and movement in everyday life, leisure and tourism.
The new endowed professorship is endowed with a total of around three million euros for the next five years and was acquired by the University of Innsbruck in a highly competitive tender. In addition to those from the state of Tyrol, the corresponding funds also come from the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, the University of Innsbruck, the Tyrolean Economic Chamber of the City of Innsbruck and various tourism companies and associations.
