Research window Vitality, Well-being and Health

Movement and a positive relation with one own body are of great importance to our well-being. In the last few decades, psychomotor therapy (PMT) has developed an important and wide range of movement- and body-oriented interventions. They are widely used when well-being and quality of life are under pressure due to psychosocial or psychiatric problems. The research within our professorship of Movement, Health and Well-being focuses on the effectiveness and working mechanisms of these different movement- and body-oriented interventions and the diagnostic and research instruments needed to accurately support indication and evaluation of therapy.

Some of our projects are:

• Sexual trauma in persons with mild intellectual disability: Psychomotor diagnostics and intervention
• Psychomotor therapy for patients with chronic pain
• The power of water: The contribution of water specific therapy to improve balance, aquatic skills and interaction in children with autism spectrum disorders

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Dr Jooske van Busschbach via email(opens in new tab)

The professorship of Human Movement, School and Sport conducts and supervises research into people's exercise and sports behaviour, particularly within the context of the school and sports associations. Our research is practice-oriented. This means that physical education teachers can directly apply the knowledge gained from research in their work. Examples of questions to be addressed are: How do children learn to move, and how do we improve motor learning with the use of new technologies? What is the social role and significance of sport? What is the relationship between the sports and physical education? What are the social effects of a certain sports policy?

Some of our projects are:

• Engaging socially vulnerable adults through sports: A study to understand and increase the societal impact of sport
• The master's eye: a study of how to increase the perceptual competence of physical education teachers
• Swimming lessons of the future

Want to know more? Contact Professor Ivo van Hilvoorde via +31 88 469 9162 (phone) or email(opens in new tab).

The professorship of Mental Health Care and Society has both feet firmly planted in the middle and is actively involved in practice. This chair investigates how to prevent the neglect of vulnerable people with, for example, mental or addiction problems. Such neglect should be spotted in time, so that counselling or treatment can be initiated. This requires a stronger connection and cooperation of professionals, citizens and organizations. Experiential knowledge is the basis for good care and services. Our researchers mainly focus on the connection between psychiatric and structural social problems.

Some of our projects are:

• Experience-wise
• Protected living in motion 
• Deployment of experience experts in projects for persons with disturbed behaviour

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Dr Alie Weerman via +31 6 5753 9885 (phone) or email(opens in new tab).

The number of people living with dementia in the Netherlands is increasing rapidly. Many people with dementia live in their own homes, and we therefore have more and more contact with people with dementia in our direct environments. Not only the (future) care professionals, but also within the family, circle of friends, in the neighbourhood, at an association or in shops. Our research group Living Well with Dementia mainly focuses on people’s abilities, rather than on the limitations and challenges posed by the disease. Important themes in the work of our research group are therefore: preserving autonomy, inclusion, participation, dignity, well-being and meaning(fulness?). In our research projects, often in the form of participatory action research, the researchers work closely with various dementia care stakeholders including people with dementia and their informal carers, health and social care professionals, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, and policy officers. In this way, we aim to address their questions in the best possible way and arrive at solutions and products that can be easily implemented in practice and education.

Some of our projects are:

• ENABLE-DEM: Multi-stakeholder learning communities enabling the health and social care workforce to establish living environments that enable living well with dementia
• Access to care for migrants with dementia: required competences for nurses
• VR imagination: images of living well with dementia through VR glasses

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Dr ir Simone de Bruin via email(opens in new tab). 

Although eHealth has been a promising development for a few decades, only few IT innovations are structurally embedded in healthcare practice. In projects and pilots with digital care solutions, healthcare professionals become enthusiastic about the opportunities offered by technologies like VR, serious games, data science, robotics, etc. However, these projects and pilots are temporarily funded and sustainable financing and embedding in care practice is not yet settled. Hence, our research group focuses on sustainable embedding of promising IT innovations in care practice by conducting multidisciplinary research from the perspective of care, technology and business. This results in applicable knowledge, for example useful tools that support healthcare providers in the use of eHealth or instruments for entrepreneurs in healthcare.

Some of our projects are:

• Methods and design principles for evaluating serious games for health
• Virtual Reality for rehabilitation
• Access to music for people with dementia

Want to know more? Contact Professor Marike Hettinga via +31 88 469 7762 (phone) or    email(opens in new tab).

The Professorship of Youth stands for healthy and inclusive upbringing of all children in a complex society. The research links up with the important social (parenting) questions from the fields of education, youth health care and youth aid. Children and young people are entitled to develop in a way that suits them, without being immediately placed outside the normal framework for special help and/or guidance. Our researchers work on the pedagogical context and pedagogical relationship around youth and family from the perspective of normalization and de-medicalization. 

Some of our projects are:

• Inclusive education: research into anxiety and depression among pupils
• Families with complex problems: knowledge transfer through a Serious Game
• Doing justice to children: children's rights in youth protection measures

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Dr Dorien Graas via email (opens in new tab)

The living environment of children has changed rapidly in recent years due to all kinds of new media and technologies. As a result, many parents and professional co-educators have all kinds of concerns. When is media good or bad, and how can you best monitor this as an educator? And what is the best way for a professional to support children or parents with questions about media? Our Youth & Media research group, together with practitioners, searches for possible answers to such topical questions. As such, we want to contribute to a healthy, safe and conscious use of media by children and youth. Our research group mainly aims at vulnerable situations like youth with intellectual disabilities or families with special needs. 

Our projects focus on media literacy in:

• Youth care (Improving media use among clients with mild intellectual disability)
• Special Needs Education (Improving media use among pupils at schools and child care)
• Home settings (Empowering digital skills of parents with young children)

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Prof. Dr Peter Nikken via email (opens in new tab)

In the research group of Client Perspective in Support and Care, our researchers map out all the stories and views of clients, both in words and in images. We translate these perspectives into customized care and support. Care that is created through the combined efforts of organizations, professionals, technology and citizens themselves. Our research group has seven research themes, which include research into resilient families, greater inclusion and care logistics. The professorhip focuses its research on the Flevoland area.

Some of our projects are:

• Studying with brain injury
• Inclusive work: room for customer motivation
• Intensive ambulatory systemic treatment at home

Want to know more? Contact our Professor, Dr Kitty Jurrius, via email(opens in new tab).

The research group of Lifelong Learning focuses on the question how professionals in organizations can be stimulated to keep up their personal development. Due to shifts on the labour market and societal transitions (e.g. digitalization, energy transition) the demands placed on employees and organisations are changing ever more rapidly. What do these changes require from employees and managers in terms of knowledge and skills? What is the importance of lifelong professional development and how do we promote a (more) active learning culture within organizations? Practical research in and with (SME) companies, sector organizations and educational institutions aims to answer these questions.

Some of our projects are:

• Building blocks of self-directed professional development
• Towards a proactive learning culture in SMEs
• Hybrid Professional: Connecting the business community and technical vocational education

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Dr Menno Vos via email (opens in new tab)

Research shows that differences between people, for example in competences, experience and views, within organizations and teams, lead to better performance and more innovation. But this is only successful if the focus is on making the most of those differences and creating an inclusive culture in which people can develop and feel valued. Our research group of Social Innovation, together with all our partners in the field, is investigating how this can best be achieved in practice. The goal is to achieve better performance, greater job satisfaction and optimal and sustainable use of all available human capital.

Some of our projects are:

• Gender include IT: keeping women in ICT
• Working on jobs for residence permit holders: 5 approaches to employment guidance
• Transition of young people with mental or psychiatric problems to work

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Sjiera de Vries via +31 88 469 6974 (phone) or email(opens in new tab).

Sports pedagogy focuses on research, education and activities that will ensure that young people can practice sports safely and enjoyable in the future with supervision by qualified people. Aim of the professorship is a focus on unsportsmanlike behavior, such as aggression on the sports field, and creating awareness among physical education teachers of behavioral risks such as sexual harassment and bullying. Through our research we make a contribution to provide a sustainable and responsible youth sports climate, in both top level and recreational sports, and education.

Some of our projects are:

• Sexual harassment in sports in the Netherlands
• iCoachsKids (competent coaching of young athletes)
• Gold in education and top level sport

Want to know more? Contact our Professor: Dr Nicolette Schipper-van Veldhoven via +31 88 469 6041 (phone) or email(opens in new tab).

The professorship of Urban Innovation focuses on inclusive and sustainable urban development. Its goal is to strengthen the economic, social and ecological connections between all those involved in urban environments (such as residents, administrators, entrepreneurs and civil society organizations). After all, the city and the urban area are where the great challenges of the future lie. There are economic and social issues at stake, and at the same time cities face major challenges in the fields of construction, sustainability and energy transition. Researchers and students work in field labs together with companies, regional organizations and residents. A field lab is also called a 'real-life testing ground'; innovative applications are tested directly in practice.

Some of our projects are:

• Minor and field labs
• New Almere Campus
• Waste hackathon for students

Want to know more? Contact Professor Dr. Evert-Jan Velzing via email(opens in new tab).