Welcome to the 22^nd annual Congress of the ECSS

On behalf of the three hosting institutions of the University Alliance Ruhr (UARuhr), namely the Faculty of Sport Science (Ruhr-University Bochum), the Institute of Sport and Sport Science (TU Dortmund University) and the Institute of Sport and Movement Science (University Duisburg-Essen), it is our greatest pleasure to invite you to attend the 22n^d annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science in MetropolisRuhr. The congress will be held between 5^th and 8^th of July, 2017, at the Congress Centre Essen (CCE) which is easily accessible by train from Düsseldorf International Airport and well connected by local transportation services.

"Sport Science in a Metropolitan Area", as a superior conference topic, faces the tremendous challenges in a large and multicultural population centre, including the broad range from Inactivity to high intensive physical stress, the distinct trend of achieving more Individuality in lifestyle and physical activity, as well as the Inclusion of minorities. Historically, some high-performance sports, such as professional football, have been an important key to strengthen the people’s Identification with our region. These specific challenges will run as a red thread through the congress and will be taken up by the plenary talks, oral and poster presentations and symposia.

Our mission as experts in Sport Science, working within MetropolisRuhr, is to explore scientifically some of these challenges and issues. We approach them from an interdisciplinary perspective, including humanities, natural sciences and medicine, and we teach them with a very practical orientation. Research-based learning is a guiding principle in all Bachelor and Master programs. By that, we ensure the best transfer of knowledge for our students, who will soon be responsible for our future society.

As young investigators are the future key-players in Sport Science research, the ECSS MetropolisRuhr 2017 will specifically attract and very warmly welcome highly motivated early stage researchers from all over the world, provide instructional workshops and satellites and bring them together with top experts in all different fields of Sport Science. We also aim at offering researchers a platform for presenting and discussing their very recent findings with their colleagues, in order to create or stabilize networks, and - overall – to ensure that relevant findings will be beneficial for our society.