Center for Applied Health Sciences (ZAG) moves to Leuphana GmbH

The ZAG was founded on March 17, 1992, by decree of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture as a joint central institution of the then University of Applied Sciences of North-East Lower Saxony and the University of Lüneburg. The aim was, and still is, to strengthen health sciences in Lower Saxony. On this basis, the ZAG has cooperated on a project-oriented basis with over 70 national and international partners as a third-party funded research institute. It has also developed a part-time MA program (Master in Public Health “Prevention and Health Promotion”), which has since been successfully reaccredited several times and is offered by the Professional School. 

Due to the increasing health burdens and stresses on people in many areas of society, answers to questions such as how mental health and well-being can be maintained and promoted are becoming increasingly urgent. “At ZAG, we have addressed these issues in our projects and programs. The focus is on daycare centers, schools, and universities, but also on workplace contexts and the design of housing and living arrangements for older people. The guiding principle here is to understand health as a resource that enables good work and education and ensures quality of life,” says Peter Paulus. 

In one project, ZAG brought together selected stakeholders from many countries at a round table to learn from each other how schools can develop good schools with health. In the area of daycare centers, ZAG has designed an integrated health management system called “KOK!GG: Kompetente Kita Gut & Gesund” (Competent Daycare Center Good & Healthy), which enables employees to work well with health. In the school sector, the nationwide and widely used program “MindMatters – mit psychischer Gesundheit gute Schule entwickeln” (MindMatters – developing good schools with mental health) offers schools support in their quality development with health. It is now being continued in the Faculty of Education under new management. Starting this year, the nationwide program “ONYA” will promote mental well-being and learning motivation among secondary school students and vocational school classes through the use of a digital app with gamified elements. 

Another project, “Self-determined aging,” which is to be continued, focuses on what self-determined living arrangements must look like in order for older people to maintain or improve their quality of life.

With these and new projects, the work of the ZAG at Leuphana GmbH will continue. Peter Paulus explains: “Health promotion based on a human-centered approach, opening up opportunities for people to lead self-determined, happy lives, will continue to be our guiding principle in the tradition of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion.”