PhD in Sport, Health and Well-being

The PhD Programme’s distinctive topic is the relationship between sport, health and well-being in its unitary complexity. Such relationship defines a research field with both a strongly cohesive content and an intrinsic openness to multi-and inter-disciplinary approaches. This general theme is articulated in the following three areas:

• Physical activity, nutrition and drugs for well-being promotion and health protection: determinants and benefits of a healthy lifestyle; exercise for special populations; research and development of drugs for health protection; biomarkers’ analysis for monitoring the well-being status; metabolism and nutrition.
• Sport performance: multi- and inter-disciplinary investigation of the factors determining human performance in sport and other activities that push humans to the limits of their physical and mental capacity; analysis, development and learning of sports techniques; monitoring and optimization of the training process; preparation for sports competitions.
• Sport as a means to education and sustainable development: analysis of the values conveyed by sport to promote social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and global citizenship; teaching and learning of culture in childhood, in relation to movement and the human body; good practices for starting and practicing grassroot sports; education to the factors of individual and social well-being in the current reality; role of the context in promoting human development.

The various research topics will be developed by stressing those “soft-skills” components that allow to locate rigorous disciplinary investigations exactly into the horizon where, today, extremely useful answers for the promotion of sport, health, and well-being can emerge.

NRPP Call Admission Board and NRRP Call - Further PhD Positions
Appointed by RD 1103/2022 Prot. n. 0162873 of 17/07/2022
Confirmed by RD 952/2022 Prot. n. 0357333 of 02/12/2022

* The following shall take part in the work of the Examination Board as expert members for positions linked to specific research topics for the NRRP Call:

• Costantino Corradini - Associazione Culturale Sportiva La Vita In Movimento
• Carlo Bottari - Fondazione Carlo Rizzoli
• Daniela Pinto - Giuliani SpA
• Paolo Aiello - Bologna FC

Call for Application Admission Board
Appointed by RD 830/2022 Prot. n. 0127511 of 30/05/2022

To develop a solid research training in the field of health and sport sciences through the progress of knowledge and methodologies in the following areas: integrated strategies for health promotion; research and development of drugs and natural and synthetic compounds for health protection; physical activity and sports science; outdoor educational activities. The PhD program, within a multi- and inter-disciplinary perspective, intends to promote collaborations with national and international research groups and organizations operating in the field of health, physical activity, sports science, and outdoor education. Our educational goals are to increase knowledge, skills and experience in the aforementioned areas; provide in-depth knowledge of the phenomena related to sport, physical activity, and health protection of individuals and populations; train students to plan and accomplish original projects inspired by the principles of the hypothesis-driven and evidence-based research

PhD students are expected to carry out activities at different levels. These mandatory activities principally consist of a scientific part devoted to research, and of an educational part. The core action is to develop autonomously a research project selected within the topics provided by the Doctoral Program, under the supervision of a tutor and the support of the Doctorate Council. All this will promote the candidate’s organizational skills and the ability to develop empirical and/or theoretical research. Since the Doctoral Program is designed to afford a trans-disciplinary exploration of the nexus among sport, health, and well-being, the didactical part will consist of courses designed for all doctoral candidates (mainly focused on “soft skills” – strategic for the PhD theme – such as relational skills, team working and problem solving, that will be the subject of multi-disciplinary seminars), of seminars and of courses both specialized and common to each macro-area. These will become highly optional and with a more specific disciplinary feature (according to each candidate profile) starting from the second year, when a research period abroad will be compulsory. PhD students will periodically present the state of the art of their research during regular meetings with the Doctorate Council, which can then assess the work done. Moreover, PhD students will be allowed to carry out a limited integrative teaching activity in official courses of the University of Bologna.

At the beginning of the course, to each PhD student will be assigned a research project consistent with his/her corresponding discipline and topic. The doctoral training activities will hence offer Doctoral candidates: - basic activities (to which all candidates are expected to attend) focused on cross-methodological topics (academic writing workshops, bibliographical research seminars, seminars on knowledge transfer valorization); - specific activities for the chosen disciplinary field aimed at acquiring skills and rigorous knowledge on research methodologies which are needed for the development of each research project. In addition, PhD students will attend lectures and seminars held by prominent national and international scholars; where needed, courses chosen between those offered in University Degree Programs or Second-level University Masters may also be attended. During the third year, the PhD student will focus on the preparation of a final, written dissertation, while supervised by his/her own tutor, who will constantly be part of the research training process. The PhD student will learn how to deal with informatics tools which are useful for the development of his/her own research; how to perform bibliographic and data base research, data analysis; how to develop laboratory techniques and methodologies, critical and interpretive attitude, papers and research projects. In order to increasingly acquire extensive abilities and skills and keep abreast of their specific research subjects, PhD students will attend each side activity that the Doctorate Council deems relevant to their specific methodological training on the Doctoral Program’s topics. Moreover, PhD students are expected to participate to symposia that are consistent with the Doctoral Program’s topics, where they can present and discuss their work both in national and international frameworks.

An official memorandum was stipulated with the University of Lleida (Spain), which agrees on the possibility of a joint PhD degree. Numerous international collaborations and Erasmus exchange Programs, which connote the Doctorate Council’s activity already, ensure PhD students the opportunity to be hosted in foreign institutions and hence to develop their theses in cotutelle with the latter. It is mandatory for PhD students to spend at least a trimester in foreign universities or research institutes, with the Doctorate Council’s authorization. Hosting institutions will be first of all those with which the members of the Council have already established international collaborations and which represent an increasingly developing network. During the research period abroad, the PhD students will have the opportunity to learn innovative methodologies of research. In the framework of international agreements (i.e., Erasmus Mundus), foreign PhD students will have the opportunity to spend a research period in the laboratories of the Department for Life Quality Studies in collaboration with its Academic Staff. Thanks to the originality of its trans-disciplinary feature, the Program is likely to attract foreign students, who may be funded with scholarships by their own country or in the framework of international or European exchange Programs. The collaboration of foreign students may also promote international research networks on a larger scale, by pursuing further relationships with different institutions. In order to develop the Program’s international profile, research paths that involve exchange and cotutelles with foreign institutions will be encouraged. To this end, agreements with European and Extra-European universities will be incentivized.

The Doctoral Program is an expression of the different disciplines and skills that connote the Department of Quality Life Studies - University of Bologna. For this reason, the result of the research activity, also oriented in terms of interdisciplinary activities, train the PhD students to the production of original studies to be published both in international scientific journals and as books, papers and Conference Proceedings (national and international) in order to integrate PhD students within the community of their specific disciplines. Finally, it is desirable, for some research fields, the development of patents.