EAS Cafe
On April 22, 2024, around 90 participants attended the 13th EAS online Cafè organized in cooperation with the EUSA Institute (https://www.eusa.eu) to address the role of university sports for enhancing sport participation and active lifestyles of university students, which is the focus of the ERASMUS+ Cooperative Partnership DiscoverU (https://discoveru.eusa.eu/).
The Cafè was moderated by Mr Andrej Pisl, EUSA Project and Policy Manager, who illustrated how DiscoverU aims to gather information on sport and physical activity opportunities for students in higher education in the partner countries and will share good practice examples for university sport and dual career support.
Ms Filipa Godinho, Pro-Rector of University of Coimbra, Portugal, explained how the European Universities Games held in Coimbra in 2018 had a positive impact on the development of dual career at the local university level, and also inspired the national Decree-Law n.55/2019, which urges all national academic institutions to reinforce their dual career supportive mechanisms and to extend them to athletes who participate in university sport competitions or are enrolled as athletes in the sports service of their university. In particular, she explained that students-athletes can benefit of different dual career support in relation to their sport involvement, spanning from elite to sub-elite and amateur levels.
Ms Marianna Pikul, representative of the International Affairs department of University Sports Association of Poland – AZS, reported the increased participation in the 2022 European Games held in Lodz and the high number of students contributing every year in the organization of a variety of sports events for different age groups (e.g., children, students, families). Furthermore, AZS supports the dual career of elite athletes in higher education, substantiated by the extraordinary representation of student-athletes in the Polish Team participating in the European Games, Universiade, and Olympics. Elite athletes having a success in both their sports and academic paths are good examples and inspirations for youth students in engaging in active lifestyles.
Mr Maté Nagyistok and Mr Lszlo Végh, Project Managers of the European Games 2024 to be held next Juy in Debrece and Miskolc, Hungary, presented the dual career approach of the Hungarian University Sports Federation (MEFS). In particular, Mr Nagyistok illustrated the programme for university students based on a cooperation between the education, sport and work sectors, through a coordinated action between families, educational institutions, and companies. Thus, youth athletes at the beginning of their sport career and elite athletes can benefit from mentoring, tutoring, career guidance, sports scholarships and free housing. In addition, Mr Végh presented how the 2024 European Universities Games to be held in Miskolc and Debrecen intend to go beyond the sport event itself. In fact, the slogan “More than Games” communicates that dual career can be a tremendous tool to engage of university students-athletes as ambassadors to inspire youth in combining active lifestyles, sports, and education for achieving a holistic development and full engagement in society.
In moderating the discussion on the involvement in dual career of different stakeholders and actors, Mr. Pisl highlighted the outcomes of two ERASMUS+ Collaborative Partnerships involving EAS and EUSA: EMPATIA, which developed a multi-lingual educational programme for parents of dual career athletes (https://edu.empatiasport.eu/eng/), and BRAVA-DC, which addressed the relevance of involving the companies in support of the dual career of sportspersons through their corporate social responsibility (https://edu.bravadualcareer.eu/report/).
Finally, Prof. Rajmund Tomik reminded that the call for papers of the 2024 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship is open (https://www.dualcareer.eu/call-for-papers-bengt-nybelius-scholarship-2024/) and invited the participants to send an abstract on their dual career activities and to attend the 2024 EAS Annual Conference “Dual career at school and university – innovative bridges between sport and education” to be held in Katowice, Poland, next 1-3 of October, 2024 (https://eas24.awf.katowice.pl). In organizing the EAS conference in the 2024European City of Science, it will be a special opportunity to highlight the contribution of dual career of sportspersons for the advancement of a European culture in and through sports on all aspects of life.
The DiscoverU project is funded by the European Union coordinated by EUSA. 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.
Dear friends of Dual Career,
On behalf of the EAS Executive Committee, I inform you that the 13th EAS Online Cafè “University Sports – From Active Lifestyles to Dual Career” will be held on April 22, 2024 (from 12:00 CET).
The webinar is organized in cooperation with the European University Sport Association (EUSA) and EUSA Institute as part of the 36-month “Discovering university sport and supporting dual career (DiscoverU)” project, co-funded by the European Union:
Speakers:
Andrej Pisl, Projects and Policy Manager of the European University Sports Association & EUSA Institute; coordinator of the DiscoverU project
Filipa Godinho, Pro-Rector for Sport of the University of Coimbra and Director of the University Stadium of the University of Coimbra; Sports Director of the European University Games Coimbra 2018; former FADU President
Marianna Pikul, AZS International Relations Department, Volunteer coordinator of the European Universities Games Lodz 2022
Laszlo Vegh, MEFS representative, Project Leader of the European Universities Games Debrecen-Miskolc 2024 & Mate Nagyistok, Junior Project Manager of the European Universities Games Debrecen-Miskolc 2024
To attend the event, please register at
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8zTDrVPST-SnwYB395Ynfg#/registration
“University Sports – From Active Lifestyles to Dual Career”
April 22, 2024 (from 12:00 CET).
The webinar is organized in cooperation with the European University Sport Association (EUSA) Institute part of the 36-month “Discovering university sport and supporting dual career (DiscoverU)” project, co-funded by the European Union.
By sharing good practice examples and implementation of sports and educational activities, DiscoverU aims to promote and support dual career in higher education to a large student population.
You can register to the event at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8zTDrVPST-SnwYB395Ynfg#/registration
The DiscoverU project is funded by the European Union coordinated by ENGSO. 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.
Looking forward to meeting you again, We wish you a nice week!
“Students-Athletes Facing the Olympic Games”
March 11, 2024 (from 12:00 CET).
Moderator
Prof. Dr. Beatriz Gomes, Professor of Biomechanics at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and member of the Executive Board of the Portuguese Olympic Committee. Former Olympic athlete of Cannoing in two olympic games (Beijing, 2008; London, 2012) and World Champion in the K1 Marathon, 2009.
Participants:
Gévrise Émane, French Olympic judo medalist and three times world champion, working for French sport institute (INSEP) as life coach for athletes, she is Vice-President of the Judo French Federation, and TV and radio consultant.
Andy Criere, Spanish surfing athlete qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and student of Business Administration and Management at the at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Spain.
David Di Veroli (TBC), Italian fencer qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and student of Economics and Management at the Italian LUISS Guido Carli University.
Looking forward to meeting you again, I wish you a nice week!
On January 26-27, 2024, the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) hosted the EAS Executive Board. During a two-day meeting, Ole Keldorf, Antonio Figueiredo, and Laura Capranica proposed activity plans of New Generation Committee (Next GEN EAS), the Scientific Committee, and the Communication Committee, respectively.
Updates on the participation of EAS in the ERASMUS+ Capacity Building Sports as Value (101093451 to build the capacity of sport managers and coaches in Balkan region to promote values in and through sport) and in the Collaborative Partnerships (COMPATH, 101050955 – Promoting Employability of Young Student-Athletes through ‘‘Competence Hub on Sport Innovation’’; Talent, 101090147 – Cloud-based education for creative sport talents; DC MENTOR, 101132309 – Enhancing Athlete Employability through Career Mentorship and Education; DiscoverU, 101134052 – Sport and physical activity opportunities for students in higher education; SMART START for DC, 101133555 – To encourage the dual career of young high school athletes aged 14 and 19; FIND ME, 101134043 – to structure an evidence-based European platform specifically tailored for dual career at university level) were shared.
The Board approved unanimously the 2024 activity and financial reports and envisaged the organization of three online cafès (March, June, and November 2024), the first one dedicated to “Students-Athletes facing the Olympic Games Students. Furthermore, the visit of the EAS ExCom Members Ole Keldorf and Risto Keskitalo to the Academy of Physical Education Katowice (Poland) was planned to prepare the 2024 Annual Conference.
On February 27, 2024, the Academy of Physical Education Katowice (Poland) Vice Rector Rajmund Tomik and the Director of international Relations Piotr Rodak welcomed Ole Keldorf and Risto Keskitalo and showed the venue of the 2024 EAS Annual Conference to be held on October 1-3, 2024. The co-operation between EAS and the host was sealed with Rector Grzegorz Juras.
During the well-prepared meeting, the Conference programme and the practical arrangements have been defined to provide the best opportunities for a EAS members to have a great time in Katowice.
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of the EAS Conference in Katowice, the European City of Science in 2024, is a special opportunity to highlight the contribution of dual career of sportspersons to the advancement of a European culture in and through sports on all aspects of life. In fact, the Conference is dedicated to “Dual career at school and university – innovative bridges between sport and education”
Further information of the 2024 Conference is available at https://eas24.awf.katowice.pl
Coordinated by the University of Limerick (IRE) in cooperation with EAS (MLT), Elite Sports Academy Aarhus – ESAA (DEN), European University Sports Association Institute – EUSA (SLO), European Platform for Sports and Innovation – EPSI (BEL), Human Age Institute Foundation (ITA), Roma Tre University (ITA), University of Ljubljana (SLO), and University of Nis (SRB), after three years the Brand Values Alignment through Dual Career (BRAVA) project, co-funded by the European ERASMUS+Sport Programme (622824-EPP-1-2020-1-IE-SPO-SCP), has come to its end. On December 12, 2023, EPSI hosted the last transnational meeting of BRAVA-DC in Brussels (BEL) to discuss the achieved outcomes and to foresee further development in the dual career of the employee-sportsperson. Despite the pandemic challenges, the consortium successfully accomplished important steps in uncovering the evidence and eminence of the dual career at the workplace, which were summarized in scientific contributions, and a report with 16 guidelines and an evaluation tool available at https://edu.bravadualcareer.eu.
In the afternoon, more than 30 in-person and 100 online participants attended the Final Conference of BRAVA-DC, which was organized in conjunction with the 11th EAS online Cafè. Alberto Bichi (Director of EPSI) welcomed the participants on behalf of the hosting organization and project consortium, and Prof Ciaran Mac Donncha (Coordinator, University of Limerick) illustrated the main outcomes and findings of the project.
Dr. Kolë Gjeloshaj (Strategic coordinator at the European Fair-Play Movement – EFPM), previous Chair of the International Fair-Play Committee – CIFP) Scientific Committee, Scientific Collaborator at the Institute of Sociology of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vice-President of the Panathlon Wallonie-Bruxelles and Belgium) emphasized the relevance of values for dual career, which need more reflections and future actions.
Navy Officer Florentia Sfakianou (Olympian and Public Affairs Officer at International Military Sports Council – CISM), presented the dual career opportunities offered by military sports to actual and former athletes and the efforts of CISM in organizing one of the largest global sports events.
Dr. Ignazio Cocchiere (Policy officer in the Sport Unit of the European Commission’s department for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport – DG EAC, and soccer player) highlighted the European values and priorities in the field of sport, including the importance of dual career from the viewpoint of the EU and Sport Unit. He also offered his personal dual career experience as a professional football player in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, and as an employee at the EU institutions.
More information on BRAVA-DC project is available at www.bravadualcareer.eu.
December 12, 2023 (from 13:55 CET)
13:30-13:55 Online connections
13:55 Welcoming of participants/speakers
Alberto Bichi (Director EPSI)
Prof. Ciaran Mac Donncha, University of Limerick (IRE) Coordinator of the BRAVA DC Collaborative Partnership
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.
Tenth EAS Online Cafè
“Dual career as European sports diplomacy”
Zoom Meeting June 1, 2023 (from 12:00 CET)
12:00 Welcome words: Prof. Antonio Sanchez-Pato
Director of the Department of Sports Sciences. Faculty of Health Sciences, International University of La Rioja.
12:10 – Prof. Felipe Rodrigues Da Costa: “Dual Career in Brazil: research, actions, and the (possible) European Experience”.
Prof. Felipe Rodrigues Da Costa is Assistant Professor at the Physical Education Faculty of the Brasilia University (FEF/UnB) and Coordinator of the Post-graduate Program in Physical Education – PPGEF/UnB. He is the Coordinator of the Research Group on Sports Training and Athlete Career (DuCa), President of the Brazilian Association on Dual Career (ABDC), Member of the IberoAmerican Network on Dual Career, and develops research on dual careers at master’s and doctorate levels. Prof. Da Costa has been working with the theme of dual careers since 2010 when he started his Ph.D. at Gama Filho University in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and participated in the organization of the International Seminar on Dual Careers and other events. He completed a postdoctoral internship at the University of Coimbra, supervised by Professor Dr. Antonio Figueiredo.
12:30 – Prof. Karim Chamari: “Surfing: from the sea’ waves to online research papers’’
Prof. Karim Chamari is Head of Aspetar Injury and Illness Prevention Program (ASPREV) at Aspetar, Doha, Qatar. He is a former elite athlete who participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Game in windsurfing. Doctor in Exercise Physiology and University Full Professor, Prof. Chamari is one of the most active Sport Science researchers. He has published 400+ publications in peer-review journals (H-index 66, Scopus) and more than 20 book chapters, particularly focused on football (soccer) science and medicine and Ramadan fasting. He has also an extensive field experience as fitness coach of professional Tunisian Footballers for more than 10 years. Prof. Chamari has been the leader of the Tunisian Research Laboratory ‘Sport Performance Optimization’ of the National Centre of Medicine and Science in Sport, Tunis, Tunisia for 10 years before joining Qatar in 2013.
12:50 – General discussions and concluding remarks
On February 27th the ninth virtual EAS cafè focused on the dual career from the educational and employment perspectives and the human rights of the sportsperson. The event attracted more than 100 participants, including university students from Niš (Serbia). Prof. Antonio Tessitore from the University of Rome Foro Italico moderated the event.
The first speaker, Dr Köle Gjeloshaj (Vice President of the Panathlon Wallonie Brussels, strategic coordinator for the Féderation Wallonie Brussels in the context of the Belgium EU Presidency 2024 in the department of the International Relations, and scientific collaborator of the Université libre de Bruxelles), highlighted the relevance and intriguing nature of the title of the event, particularly in relation to its novelty within the international sport environment.
He focused on the framework and approach of the IOC and other major international sports organizations in relation to the safeguard of human rights, the human resources management, and the dual career support for elite sportspersons (i.e., the IOC/Adecco Athlete365 Career+ programme). In particular, Dr. Gjeloshaj stressed the need to establish a legal framework that should guarantee the rights of elite athletes as workers and/or as students within different parallel and/or transition career trajectories and a lifelong learning perspective. Furthermore, in considering the relevant competencies and skills developed through and during an elite athletic career, the employment sector should further recognize the value of sportspersons as workers, which could also be a concrete action from the corporate social responsibility perspective.
The second speaker, Dr Giovanni Di Cola (Special Adviser at the International Labour Organization, ILO) presented current practices and recommendations in relation to the advancement of decent work in sport. Concrete examples have been presented (i.e., the IOC sustainability strategy; the UEFA sustainability strategy), which highlighted the need to adopt a comprehensive approach to guarantee appropriate and sustainable working policies and conditions in the sport sector. To meet the needs of a complex and rapid development of sport environment, Dr. Di Luca claimed that there is an urgent need for major sports organizations to take actions and accelerate the processes. Major recommendations included the focus on athletes’ working conditions and collective bargaining, the acceleration of sustainability in sport, the reinforcement of dual careers though competencies and skills recognition and development, and the review of traditional models adapting to evolving environments and conditions within the sport sector.
Following the general discussion addressing the main themes discussed during the Cafè, both speakers emphasized the urgent need of a cooperation between organizations for concrete and effective actions accelerating the policy development and implementation processes of the recognition of the rights of elite sportspersons as students and workers,
In closing the event, President Laura Capranica informed that the tenth EAS Cafè will be organized in April/May and that the University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale will organize the 2023 EAS Conference in Gaeta (Italy). Finally, the President invited young researchers to apply to the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship.
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PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu