Michael Feaux / Universität Tübingen

Mobile Activity Lab (MAL)

Regular physical activity is the easiest way to protect yourself from many diseases. The question of why some people exercise more frequently and others less or not at all has been on the scientific agenda for quite some time.

The Mobile Activity Lab is an interdisciplinary project of sports science and sports medicine and will address the above mentioned question with scientific methods of systems biology, psychology and sociology.

Three topics are in the foreground: a) the monitoring of movement under everyday conditions, b) social and economic incentive systems and c) analysis of individual training needs and motivation, which require a longer stay at Tübingen (Interdepartmental Research Centre for Sport and Physical Activity).

In the sense of applied science, the findings will be transferred into exercise and health-related services, such as individualised training and activation programmes and sports and health counselling services.  

The mobile form of the Mobile Activity Lab makes it possible to research different settings. Approximately 12 trips per year are planned here, which will be accompanied by a one-week standing time on site. Location goals are both kindergartens, kitas, schools, hospitals, enterprises and senior residences as well as market and fair places of the region Stuttgart/Neckar-Alb.

Short and long-term studies on the culture of movement and the prevention of diseases of civilization at the Tübingen site and at the sites in the Stuttgart/Neckar-Alb metropolitan area will transfer findings for the protection of society. The social commitment of the operators (AOK, University, and other supporters) is carried into the "Ländle" by public relations work, but especially by the rolling advertising platform Mobile Activity Lab.