PASTECHL
Western Balkan Sport Innovation Lab
Montenegro
Biography
Brigita Banjac is a Research Associate in the field of Social Sciences for Physical Education and Sport. She completed her BSc in 2018, her MSc in 2019, and her PhD in 2024 at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad (UNS FSPE), Serbia. She is an early-career researcher in two research groups: the Sport Management and Sociology Lab (SMS Lab, Serbia) and the Western Balkan Sport Innovation Lab (WBSI Lab, Montenegro). During her doctoral studies, she participated in the Central European Exchange Program for University Students (CEEPUS) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Primorska (UP FVZ), Slovenia, for six months in the 2021/2022 academic year. She is fluent in Hungarian, Serbian, and English. She is the author or co-author of more than 10 international and national peer-reviewed scientific papers. She has attended three training schools and one doctoral school and has presented at several national and international conferences and meetings. Her current research interests include aggression and interpersonal violence, athletes’ mental health and well-being, sustainable sports tourism, active mobility among the elderly, and lifelong community mobility.
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Workshop Outlines
Mobility-Friendly Communities: The Power of Active Mobility and Age-Friendliness Environment for Older Adults
This workshop is part of the Interdisciplinary Physical Activity and Sports Tech for Healthy Lifestyles (PASTECHL) Bar 2026 Scientific Conference. It aims to highlight the importance of active and healthy ageing through active mobility and age-friendliness for older adults. The target audience includes scientists, students, and stakeholders from multidisciplinary backgrounds.
Recent European trends indicate that quality of life has become a primary concern. Older residents often face obstacles to active mobility, such as walking or cycling, in cities dominated by motor vehicles and characterized by insufficient infrastructure. In addition, their access to essential services (e.g., medical care or markets) is frequently limited, which can result in reduced independence and social isolation in daily life. Therefore, active mobility, which prioritizes physical activity over vehicle use, can play a key role in improving quality of life, promoting healthy ageing, and enhancing social inclusion for older adults. According to the literature, a combination of educational, institutional, and infrastructural measures is necessary to achieve meaningful improvements. The concept of an age-friendly environment encompasses community support and services, social inclusion, outdoor spaces and buildings, and transportation that supports active mobility within the community. A coordinated approach integrating public health, social policy, and urban planning is essential for progress.
The main goal of the workshop is to promote the importance of active and healthy ageing as well as quality of life for older adults, viewed through the lens of active mobility and age-friendly environments, by bridging scientific knowledge with practical applications.
Specific goals:
- Increase awareness of the importance of active mobility
- Promoting the development of age-friendly environments
- Review of the geographic information system (GIS) mapping methodology
- Connect scientific knowledge with research based on field monitoring and observation conducted in Podgorica, Montenegro
- Discuss inclusive and sustainable mobility frameworks for the ageing population
Stevo Popovic
University of Montenegro
Montenegro
Biography
Stevo Popovic has 10+ years’ experience with particular focus on planning, conducting, and evaluating research studies dealing with health and exercise, which also include clinical trials. As a sports and exercise scientist he uses knowledge of how the body works to help people improve their health and sporting ability at large. However, he has also profound insight into physical anthropology, and he understands the complexity of how physical activity affect the human body and its composition; but, also into social anthropology that helps to understand the social side of the same issues. With a background as a Ph.D. from the University of Novi Sad and postdoc from the University of Ljubljana, as well as a teacher and research at the University of Montenegro, he has achieved the following key competencies: knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses, project and data management, study design expertise, excellent communication skills, and dissemination skills in both written and oral etc. he currently holds several leading positions in the national and international projects, as well as leading roles and memberships in the governing bodies of professional and scientific organizations.
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Workshop Outlines
The European Fitness Monitoring System (EUFITMOS): an overview of the project development and outputs
Physical fitness is one of the most relevant indicators of child and adolescent health and wellbeing. Despite the EU recommendations for monitoring PF and using it to inform policymakers on health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA), fitness levels have not been given adequate attention outside of scientific research. In line with this fact, EUFITMOS project was developed.
The main goal of workshop: To familiarize conference delegates with a new European framework for monitoring fitness in children and adolescents and promote its use as an indicator of HEPA. Conference delegates will get acquainted with the three-year long life of the project as well as its development and main outputs.
Specific goals: Three main project outputs resulted: 1) the EUFITMOS fitness battery, 2) the teacher training module and toolkit, and 3) the EUFITMOS online platform. Developing the EUFITMOS fitness battery sought to capitalize the knowledge of existing fitness batteries and tests to produce a feasible (simple to execute in the school setting and low cost on resources) yet complete (encompass the most important health-related fitness components) fitness battery. An online toolkit, including the EUFITMOS fitness testing protocol and support videos and audio, was elaborated to support the implementation of the EUFITMOS fitness battery. The EUFITMOS online platform is a user-based platform containing the EUFITMOS physical fitness database and analysis and visualization resources that inform young people’s fitness levels. With a wide and consistent implementation of the EUFITMOS fitness battery, the goal of having comparable, valid, and reliable physical fitness data available as an indicator of HEPA at the European level can be achieved.