With increasing life expectancy, it is becoming crucial to guarantee the mobility of the elderly to enable them to age in good health. The COST Action BOPALiM - Building Opportunities for Participation and Accessibility through lifelong community Mobility - focuses on three aspects: assessing and maintaining driving ability, transitioning to alternative mobility, and managing alternative mobility, including public transport and walking. The aim is to develop an overall framework to guide European and national policies on these three aspects.
A key feature of COST Actions research networks is that they fund meetings, travel, or publication costs, but not the research itself. Consequently, they encourage networking, cooperation, and scientific exchange. Moreover, they remain open throughout their duration to any interested researchers. Accepted by COST in May 2024, BOPALiM already brings together experts from around thirty countries and various disciplines such as occupational therapy, medicine, psychology, geography, gerontology, engineering, architecture, urban planning, health sciences, design, economics, law, and more.
The University of Applied Sciences and arts Western Switzerland – HES-SO and its Health Faculty, as well as the HETSL, welcome with gratitude and pride the appointment of professor Isabel Margot-Cattin as Action Chair of BOPALiM, which represents a first for the whole institution. “Chairing Action BOPALiM is both a challenge to coordinate such an endeavour and an achievement in addressing community mobility as an issue on the European scene”, says Isabel Margot-Cattin. Which will also be able to rely on professor Derek Christie, from the Haute école de santé Fribourg - HEdS-FR, who will represent Switzerland and the HES-SO on the Cost Action BOPALiM management committee.