June 2023
Croatian Academic Sports Federation (CASF/HASS), with the support of the European University Sports Association (EUSA), academic and other partners, hosted the first “4 Healthy Academic Society” conference in Poreč, Croatia on June 8 -9, 2023.
The conference was opened with the welcoming words of the CASF President and EUSA 1st Vice-President Mr Haris Pavletic and EUSA President, Mr Adam Roczek.
The conference showcased a significant step towards creating a healthier and more active academic environment that will benefit the physical and mental health of students, academics, and professionals. It was the place where multiple scientific presentations and papers were presented, knowledge shared, important data showcased, and networks strenghtened. This conference emphasized the importance of physical exercises and health, while addressing a broad range of topics related also to dual career.
Prof. Mojca Doupona (EAS ex-com member) was a keynote speaker. She gave presentation entitled “From EU guidelines on dual career to useful practical tools for student athletes”, emphasizing important best practice examples, projects related to the topic of dual career(i.e. Brava DC, TALENT, Compath, Paralimits), as well as sharing knowledgeable examples of her expertise, extensive research involvement, and strategic leadership experience.
On the topic of Dual career and academic sport, the attendees had the chance to hear and see study and research data of athletes’ Croatian Career Centre, analysis of the current situation and trends in competitive and recreative university sport, the importance of information in the system of academic sports, as well as new strategies to improve employment opportunities and sports event quality in Europe.
In being a platform for intergovernmental co-operation between its Member States (i.e., Governing Board) and sports actors (i.e., Consultative Committee), the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) of the Council of Europe aims to contribute to ensure good governance, ethical and inclusive sport. On June 7-8, 2023 in Strasbourg (France), President Laura Capranica had the opportunity to participate in the annual meeting of the Consultative Committee, to present the past and present EAS activities in relation to the aims and recommendations of the revised European Sport Charter (https://www.coe.int/en/web/sport/revision-esc/), to elect the President and a new Member of the Consultative Committee Bureau, and to participate in the discussion during the meetings of the EPAS Governing Board.
Regarding the revised European Sport Charter, the aims of the recently finalized (AMID, DONA, EdMedia, ELCAMP, EMPATIA, More Than Gold, Sport Opens Schools, and STARTING11) and ongoing (BRAVA-DC, COMPATH, Para-Limits, Talent, Sports as Value) projects co-funded by the European Union have been illustrated. Furthermore, the EAS and EPAS role in the ongoing European COST Action Determinants of Physical Activity in Settings (DE-PASS, CA19101) has been highlighted.
To integrate the Bureau of the Consultative Committee elected last year (Vice Chair: Mogens Kirkeby – International Sport and Culture Association – ISCA; Members: Pauline Johanet – Peace and Sport; Janez Sodrznik – The Association For International Sport for All – TAFISA; Baiba Veisa – European Fair Play Movement – EFPM), and to the Gender Equality Rapporteur (Marie Dennington – European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation – ENGSO), Charlotte Girard Fabre (International Federation for Sports Officials – IFSO) and Andrej Pisl (European University Sports Association – EUSA) have been elected for an one-year mandate as Chair and new Member, respectively. Also the Governing Board elected its new Bureau, confirming Chair Alexandre Husting (Luxembourg) and Vice-Chair Andrea Carletti (Italy), and Members Solène Charuau (France), Benthe Tanghe (Netherlands), Andrew Decelis (Malta), Ioanna Paraskevopoulou (Cyprus) and Diana De Aguiar Santos (Portugal).
During the joint sessions, the past and upcoming EPAS events have been presented. Issues on the promotion of sport integrity have been discussed, including the draft Declaration on Sport Integrity and the role of the International Network of Magistrates and Prosecutors Responsible for Sports (MARS) to be presented to the Committee of Ministers.
The day before the meetings, EPAS also organized a hybrid training session on gender equality, with dr. Jane Dennehy specifically addressing unconscious bias in women’s sport and media.
More information is available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/sport/epas/.
Hosted by the Instituto Politécnico de Viseu and coordinated by Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio – UCAM, on May 30, 2023, the Para-Limits Team gathered in Viseu, Portugal to examine the status of reports after completion of the IO4 pilot course, with a focus on the presentation of the Executive Report. As well, was presented the pilot course feedback and respective areas for improvement.
Para-Limits – Dual Career of Student-Athletes with Disabilities as a Tool for Social Inclusion project (EPLUS 400622213) is aimed at enabling high-level sportsmen and women with some kind of disability to successfully complete their sports and university careers without undermining one over the other. The name Para-Limits refers to those high-level athletes, Paralympics included, who seek to break down barriers and display their talent without limits.
During the meeting was discuss the format of the publication of the outputs of the project getting the idea that the most viable option is to publish the course modules in Handbook format in order to fulfil the IO5 of the project.
Financial aspects were mentioned by the coordinator institution and considering the project is coming to an end, final announcements were presented to keep all the procedures suitable with the agency requirements.
Finally, it was informed that the final transnational meeting of the project will take place on June 27th, 2023, at the headquarters of the ONCE Foundation in Madrid, Spain.
The EAS was represented by Antonio Figueiredo and Antonio Pato (physically) and Laura Capranica (remotely).
Para-Limits project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
On June 1st, 2023, more than 80 participants, including university students from Niš (Serbia) attended online the tenth EAS Cafè “Dual career as European sports diplomacy”, moderated by Prof. Antonio Sanchez-Pato, Director of the Sports Science Area at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR, Spain) and member of the EAS Executive Committee.
Prof. Sanchez-Pato introduced the theme of the Cafè by offering the definitions of sport diplomacy and examples of this powerful tool to improve the dialogue, relations, and cultural exchanges between communities, to defuse tensions and to build bridges between countries. He also highlighted the role of education of sportspersons whose experiences of a globalized sport environment could help them developing skills useful in the diplomatic arena. Finally, he emphasized the potential of e-learning to support dual career worldwide, especially in considering that some European universities historically have a relevant cultural exchange in other continents, such as Latin America.
The first speaker, Prof. Felipe Rodrigues Da Costa, Assistant Professor at the Physical Education Faculty of the Brasilia University (FEF/UnB) and Coordinator of the Post-graduate Program in Physical Education, summarized the development of dual career in Latin America, starting from his post-doc experience at the University of Coimbra and his cooperation with Prof. Antonio Figueiredo, Member of the EAS Excecutive Committee. He illustrated not only his personal dedication to the development of dual career research in Latin America that resulted in a tremendous increase of scientific contributions during the past few years, but also the capitalization of the good practice of EAS for establishing a dual career Ibero-American network, which resulted in the organization of international seminars and the participation of Brazilian delegates to the EAS conference.
The second speaker, Prof. Karim Chamari, Head of Aspetar Injury and Illness Prevention Program (ASPREV) at Aspetar, Doha (Qatar) presented his difficulties in combining his academic and sport careers as a Tunisian Olympic windsurfer at the Barcelona Games in 1992. Whilst in Tunisia he struggled to have dual career arrangements at academic level, as a PhD student at the University of Montpellier (France) he engaged in personal negotiations with his PhD tutor to have a 4-month break from his research studies to prepare for the Olympic Games. Suffering a sudden end of his sport career due to an unexpected severe pathology, Prof. Chamari benefited from his bio-medical studies to recover his condition. Despite a lack of institutional dual career support, Prof. Chamari’s determination made him a well-prepared coach of professional soccer players and one of the most rewarded outstanding scholars.
In summarizing the general discussion, Prof. Sanchez-Pato underlined the main role of dual career in establishing understanding between cultures, scientific research, and cooperation between organizations. He also urged young researcher to send their application to the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship before July 1, 2023, and anticipated that an EAS survey will be mailed to its internal and external stakeholders to collect their opinions regarding the past and future EAS activities. Before closing the Tenth EAS Cafè, the participants were informed that the next EAS Cafè will be organized in fall, after the Annual Conference to be held in Gaeta next October 2-4, 2023.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu