Facilities
The Doctoral College builds on the excellent research infrastructure of the University of Innsbruck, especially the Department of Psychology and the Department of Sport Science, which together provide a uniquely broad methodological portfolio – from high-end neuroimaging to molecular analyses, psychophysiology, VR-based experiments, and performance diagnostics.
Department of Psychology –
Neurocognitive and Biopsychosocial Methods
The Department of Psychology offers state-of-the-art facilities to support biopsychosocial health and prevention research. The department is closely linked to the research center “Health and prevention over the lifespan”, which connects different units within the faculty and facilitates interdisciplinary projects.
A key asset is the neuroimaging center (established 2022), jointly led by Prof. Anna Buchheim, Prof. Carmen Morawetz & Prof. Dorothea Hämmerer. It provides:
- a 3T Siemens Prisma MRI scanner for high-resolution structural and functional imaging,
- three EEG laboratories, including MR-compatible EEG systems for simultaneous EEG–fMRI studies,
- eye-tracking laboratories for experimental and attention-based paradigms,
- psychophysical laboratories for controlled stimulus presentation and behavioral testing.
The center is not only a service unit but also an active academic hub with user meetings, seminar series, and workshops, supporting doctoral researchers in planning, conducting, and analyzing advanced neuroscientific studies.
In 2025, the department further expanded its infrastructure through the establishment of a biological laboratory. This unit enables the standardized, non-invasive collection and analysis of biological samples (saliva, hair, fingernails, earwax, oral mucosa swabs) to assess a broad range of biomarkers relevant to stress, health, and prevention. This addition allows doctoral projects to combine neural, psychological, and biological levels of analysis and to address questions on the biological bases of cognition, emotion, and behavior.
Department of Sport Science –
Exercise, Movement, Performance, and Applied Physiology
The Department of Sport Science contributes cutting-edge methodological expertise for projects focusing on movement, physical activity as prevention, performance diagnostics, and psychophysiological measurement.
A state-of-the-art Human Movement Laboratory led by Prof. Peter Federolf offers:
- markerless, AI-based motion tracking systems
- marker-based motion tracking systems,
- IMU-based motion tracking systems,
- electromyography
- various force transducers,
which make it possible to quantify human movement / human behavior / human-human interactions as the high-dimentional complex systems that they are.
The newly opened sports medicine laboratory building (2024), led by Prof. Anne Hecksteden, offers:
- high-end performance diagnostics,
- cardiopulmonary and metabolic assessment,
- standardized exercise-intervention settings,
- infrastructure for longitudinal training and health studies.
This makes it possible to investigate “physical activity as medicine” empirically, and to link behavioral, physiological, and neurocognitive data within one doctoral project.
EVM Core Facility –
Experimental Behavioral Research and Media Studies
For projects that require immersive, interactive, or technology-enhanced experimental environments, the doctoral college can draw on the newly established “Experimentelle Verhaltensforschung und Medienbildung (EVM) Core Facility”, (Faculty coordinator: Felix Wachholz, PhD).
The facility provides:
- virtual reality setups (including VR headsets with integrated eye tracking),
- galvanic skin response (GSR) and other psychophysiological sensors,
- screen-based and mobile eye-tracking systems.
This enables innovative research on emotional engagement, media exposure, social interaction, learning, and embodied experiences – highly relevant for biopsychosocial prevention research in digital and hybrid environments.