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From November 22 to 24, the 10th International Conference of the Universitaria Consortium in Physical Education, Sports, and Physiotherapy, titled “The Football of the Future – Between Science, Society, and Sports”, was held in Iași, Romania.

The conference represented an opportunity to increase the awareness of the FIND ME ERASMUS+Sport Project(101134043) focused on the implementation of dual career of sportspersons at university level.

Beatrice Abalasei, Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, welcomed the authorities, the Deans and Representatives of Romanian and International universities, the speakers, and the participants. Laura Capranica, President of EAS addressed the three main reasons to focus on dual career and a good practice for universities: First, education and sport are human rights to allow talented sportsperson to pursue their holistic development; second, the relevance of educated athletes for the social, economic, and policy sectors in different countries; and third, dual career athletes are crucial to deliver a positive image and values of their university. As a good practice, she presented the informal consortium of Italian Universities the UniSport Italy, which succeeded in fostering the national dual career guidelines in agreement with the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP), and the Italian Sport University Federation (CUSI) despite the Italian “laisser faire” approach to dual career.

The conference was structured into five sections and three working groups. One of the working groups focused on “Implementation of Policies and Strategies of Dual Career in the European Union,” an awareness-raising event under the “FIND ME: University Dual Career Opportunities” Erasmus+ project (ID: 101134043), where EAS is one of the partner organizations. Prof. Beatrice Abalasei, Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași introduced the FIND ME project, and project leader Nenad Stojiljković from the University of Niš (Serbia) highlighted the benefits and opportunities for higher education institutions to increase the visibility of their dual career policies and to cooperate with sports bodies, with special regard to football.

In the following days, Beatrice Abalasei, Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași welcomed the participants to the meeting of the FIND ME project. Raluca Mihaela Onose presented the outcomes of the National Report for Romania, deriving from the semi-structured interviews and the focus group. Andrea Fusco from The University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) illustrated the progression of the scientific evidence on “Sportspersons’ Opinions on Dual Career Measures,”.

Matteo Perissinotto (OKKAM, Italy) clarified the development of the FIND ME platform and the group discussed the development of an online tool to collect the student-athletes’ feedback of their university dual career services and policies. Finally, Burak Calışkan from Collective Innovation AS, Oslo (Norway) presented the outcomes and next steps of the overall dissemination, communication, and networking.

The wonderful hosts of the FIND ME meeting also offered a tour to explore the Iași’s historical heritage.

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 Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.