EU Projects

Edited by María José Maciá-Andreu María T. Morales-Belando Lourdes Meroño Antonio Sánchez-Pato, and Juan Alfonso García-Roca, the ebook A Holistic Approach to the Dual Career of the Student-Athlete includes the scientific contributions of the 2022 EAS Conference in Cartagena, Spain, and is available at https://www.dykinson.com/libros/a-holistic-approach-to-the-dual-career-of-the-student-athlete/9788411704861/

Hosted by the Portuguese Sport Confederation and coordinated by ENGSO, on October 12-14, 2023, the Sports as Value Team gathered in Lisbon, Portugal to develop the first workshop planned in the project.

In the first day all the participants were invited to merge to the EQUIP Conference to learn about inclusion and diversity witnessing good practices in these areas and getting to know policies, EU documents about gender equality and identities in sports. Moreover, it was possible to participate actively in parallel sessions such as Human Library, Walk of Privilege and Call to Action.

In the morning of the second day, Sports as Value partners, from Region 1, presented their good practices:

1. Albania NOC: about digitalisation and partnerships;
2. BiH NOC: about the meaning of sports in post-conflict zone;
3. Kosovo NOC: about internationalization.

The following periods were dedicated to the participation of all the Sports as Value partners in the European Sport Platform, organized by Engso and Portuguese Sport Confederation, where an active involvement in the following topics was fully recommended:

• Value and policy in sport
• Sustainability dimension in sport
• Sustainability dimension in sport – parallel workshops
  • Economical dimension of sustainability
  • Social dimension of sustainability
  • Environmental dimension of sustainability
• Good governance in sport
• Good governance in sport – parallel workshops
  • Youth and integrity
  • Safeguarding in sport
  • Fair play in grassroots sport
• HealthyLifestyle4All initiative – Legacy of Youth Ideas Labs

The EAS was represented by António Figueiredo.

Further information will be shared by EAS ExCom in future contact moments, with a especial in the Annual Conference to be held in Katowice, Poland, next September 24-26, 2024.

Sports as Value 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.

Hosted by the Foundacion ONCE, on June 27, 2023 Laura Capranica (President), Mojca Doupona (Treasurer) and Antonio Sanchez-Pato (Board Member) attended the event on dual career of Paralympic athletes, during which issues on their challenges and opportunities of a Dual Career and the experiences in combining high competition and university paths have been addressed.

Moderated by Fernando Riaño (World Paralympic triathlete and Director of Sustainability/ESG and Institutional Relations at Grupo Social ONCE), during the first session Laura Capranica (EAS), Juan Alfonso García Roca (UCAM) and Luis Leardy and María Delgado (Members of the International Paralympic Committee and Spanish representatives) addressed the challenges and opportunities of a Dual Career of para-athletes.

With her personal experience, María Delgado moderate the second session dedicated to High Competition Athletes and the University.    With her personal experience, María Delgado (Paralympic Committee) moderate the second session dedicated to High Competition Athletes and the University with the University Paralympic Carla Casals (Paralympic trainer program FONCE)  and Ignacio Arribas  (Paralympic Committee)-

During the final remarks, Mrs. Dª Isabel Martínez Lozano, Director of Programmes with Universities and Promotion of Young Talent (FONCE), reminded the audience that since 1938 ONCE has laid the foundation for a system of specialized social services for individuals with disabilities to overcome the obstacles to develop socially, professionally and personally. With the Para-Limits project, ONCE included dual career of athletes with disability, ensuring the sustainab  ility of this project.

Following the event, the Para-Limits Team discussed the final steps of the project including the final report and envisioned future collaboration in this area. The Para-Limits – Dual Career of Student-Athletes with Disabilities as a Tool for Social Inclusion project (EPLUS 400622213) will be present at the 2023 EAS Conference in Gaeta, Italy next October 2-4, 2023.

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.

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.

Hosted by the Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio – UCAM and coordinated by Collective Innovation AS, on May 29-30, 2023, the COMPATH Team gathered in Murcia, Spain to examine the preliminary findings of a desk analysis of academic curricula encompassing sports-oriented technology and 21st century skills, business world, entrepreneurship and different thinking and literacy methods, and to envisage further progression of the project.

The COMPATH project (101050955) supports the educational, professional, and personal development of young athletes-students (18-25 yrs) through a ‘‘Competence Hub on Sport Innovation’’, thereby contributing to promote quality and new jobs and to driving innovation. Using the potential of sport, COMPATH will contribute to smart growth and employment through the re-usable, transferable and up-scalable results (the content – educational resources and tools; and space – platform) offered to young athletes-students and facilitators responsible for their education and guidance.

In the next months, two surveys will be administered to European academic experts and student-sportspersons aged between 18 to 25 years, respectively. Furthermore, national semi-structured interviews with experts in dual career, sports technology, and/or pedagogy will be envisaged.

Further information will be shared during the next EAS Annual Conference to be held in Gaeta, Italy, next October 2-4, 2023

COMPATH 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 May 4-5, 2023, the University of Ljubljana and EUSA organized the second face-to-face transnational project meeting of the European project BRAnd Values Alignment through Dual Career (BRAVA-DC, 622824-EPP-1-2020-1-IE-SPO-SCP). The BRAVA-DC project focuses on the Dual Career opportunities of employee sportspersons, which could be valuable for the sustainability and corporate social responsibility strategies and policies of for-profit companies. In raising the awareness of employment challenges and opportunities for dual career sportspersons could be considered also a beakthrough for other atypical employee, such as artists and performers.

During the 2-day hosted by the Faculty of Sport of the University of Ljubljana the partners discussed the findings regarding the views of relevant dual career factors collected from the views of the employee sportspersons and their employers. In particular, the concept mapping was deemed relevant for the development of a dual career framework at the workplace, and the identification of the most relevant factors possessing theoretical and reasonable agreements should inform the new European DC workplace guidelines.

Two graphic students participated to the meeting offering their visual representation of the BRAVA-DC project and the interaction between the members of the project. This unique contribution allowed the participants to further reflections on how visual illustration could summarize effectively the project aims and its development.

During the EAS Annual Conference to be held in Gaeta on 2-4 October 2023, dual career experts will have the opportunity to validate the content and structure of the new European dual career guidelines at the workplace.

On March 30-31 the 2023, the kick-off meeting of the Erasmus+ funded project “Sport as Value”, coordinated by ENGSO in cooperation with the Olympic Committees of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, the Confederacao do desporto de Portugal (PSC), The University of Pristina, the Organizzazione per L’educazione allo Sport (OPES), and EAS. During the next two years, Sports as Values aims to build the capacity of sport clubs, organizations and federations to integrate positive values into the sport practice at the grassroots level in a structured, dynamic and systematic way, as well as to build stronger communities and peaceful societies through sport and promotion of EU values in a historically fragmented region.

The project partners hope to create sustainable, long-lasting partnerships in the Balkan region, with skilled and knowledgeable organizers that will successfully promote the positive impact of grassroots sports and the values in sport which will result in stronger, peaceful, and more connected societies.

Following a research phase to gather knowledge on grassroots sports and good practices on promotion of values in and through sports across the Western Balkan regions, two workshops will be organized to raise the capacity of sport managers, coaches, and volunteers working within the event management department in grassroots sports organizations. After developing new skill sets, joint actions will take place in the four Balkan countries based on the guidelines developed through initial project activities and research.

In the scope of the project A Self-employment Career Option for Elite Athletes: Innovative Sport-focused Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (ELCAMP), on February 22, EAS organised in Rome two focus groups with the aim to evaluate curriculum for entrepreneurship education.

The purpose of the curriculum is to promote entrepreneurship education through the introduction of entrepreneurial competencies in the curriculum of sports sciences.

The following module titles are covered in this curriculum: 

1. Entrepreneurial Knowledge
2. Entrepreneurial Attitude
3. Entrepreneurial Management
4. Entrepreneurial Social and Opportunity Making Competence
5. SportsTech – Sport Technologies

The focus group participants praised the efforts of the project partners to help empower DC athletes to gain new knowledge in the field of sports entrepreneurship and thus help athletes to enter the labor market more easily.

Focus group participants praised the efforts of project partners – The Collaborative Partnership is coordinated by Collective Innovation AS (Norway) and includes the Hogskolen I Molde (Norway), Olimpijski Komite Slovenije Zdruzenje Sportnih Zvez (Slovenia), Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio (UCAM, Spain) Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas (Lithuania), Mobile Adventure Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia (Poland), and EAS as Partners – to help DC athletes acquire new skills in sports entrepreneurship, making it easier for athletes to enter the job market.

Focus group participants provided some substantive recommendations for further work, which can be summarized in the following recommendations for improving the curriculum:

• Interactive tasks should include scenarios,
• level of knowledge of the participants should be indicated in the entry level.
• a definition of the terms is suggested (i.e. What is self-consciousness?).
• some modules will require more than 8 hours , therefore is recommended to split two moduls into three).
• The order of the modules could be changed in a logical way
• Because arget groups are different in some modules – they must be defined and coherent.
• to specify the Olympic- Paralympic.
• The introduction is perhaps too lengthy, some references are missing.
• Economic and budgetary issues should be made clearer.

The next and final step of the ELCAMP project will take place on March 29 and 30 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where a piloting seminar and a two-day workshop will be organised, as well as the preparation of the online test.

On February 20-22, 2023, for the first time the transnational meeting of the ERASMUS+ Collaborative Partnership “BRAnd Values Alignment through Dual Career (BRAVA-DC, 622824-EPP-1-2020-1-IE-SPO-SCP) was organized in presence. Hosted by the University Roma3 – Italy, and coordinated by the University of Limerick –  Ireland, the partners from  the University of Ljubljana – Slovenia, the European Platform for Sport Innovation (EPSI) – Belgium, the Elite Sport Academy Aarhus (ESAA) – Denmark, the Human Age Institute Foundation (FHAI) – Italy, the University of Niš – Serbia, the European University Sports Association Institute (EUSA) – Slovenia, and the European Athlete as Student Network – Malta) had the opportunity to share the preliminary findings of the concept mapping for the development of dual career guidelines of the employee-sportspersons (e.g., athletes, coaches, referees, physical trainers, and sports managers).

The concept mapping has been developed based on a literature review and a solid eminence-knowledge encompassing 22 semi-structured interviews, five national focus groups, and a survey with 39 dual career experts validating the clarity of 50 factors aiming to facilitate appropriate Dual Career brand alignment strategies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies.

In the past months, employee-sportspersons, managers at sport and corporate levels, and dual career experts unanimously graded and sorted the final list of 50 factors. After having agreed that the main targets of the guidelines were the employees, the managers, and the  policy makers at national and international levels, the BRAVA-DC Team discussed the methodological approach of the qualitative-quantitative data interpretation of the concept mapping, and analyzed preliminary findings. In March the concept mapping data collection will be completed.

In the next two months another face-to-face meeting will be organized in Slovenia to finalize the guidelines and to create a web-based platform dedicated to the employees, employers, and governing bodies.

More information is available at www.bravadualcareer.eu