EAS ExCom

Bengt Nybelius, together with Risto Keskitalo, the founder of the European Athlete as Student Network (EAS), was a brilliant mind, who settled the objectives and the structure of the organisation in 2004. He passed away in 2011, and EAS decided to establish a scholarship to carry on the legacy of his work. Therefore, we are happy to announce the Call for Paper of the “2025 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship”

Aims of the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship

The aim of the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship is to facilitate the integration of outstanding scholars and young researchers in the area of dual career.

Eligibility to the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship

Regardless the nationality and country of residence, researchers up to 40 years of age could be eligible for the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship.

Requirements to apply to the 2025 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship

Applicants must submit as first author an original manuscript related to the scope of EAS. Manuscripts must not contain information presented in other manuscripts published elsewhere.

The manuscript should be written in English, between 15 and 30 pages double-spaced in Arial font size 11, including title page, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, acknowledgments (if applicable), references, tables, figures and legends, and statement of conflicts of interest.

Manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter, stating clearly why the work is considered suitable for the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship and explaining the importance of the study.

Selection of the 2025 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship Winner

The Board of EAS will consider the quality of submitted manuscripts and notify the winner by July 31, 2025. The winner has to summarize her/his work with a 15-minute oral presentation in English at the 2025 Annual EAS Conference in Riga, Latvia, October 6-8.

EAS will arrange travel, accommodation, and registration of the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship winner.

Application to the 2025 to disseminate Bengt Nybelius Scholarship

To be considered for the 2025 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship applicants before July 1st, 2025 (midnight CET) must submit by e-mail to info@dualcareer.eu, including:

• A copy of the manuscript (PDF)
• An abstract, 1 page, about 2400 characters
• Curriculum vitae and list of publications (if there are others)

Requests of further information, if needed, could be addressed to info@dualcareer.eu. We are looking forward to receiving your application!

On behalf of the Board of EAS

 Laura Capranica

The EAS Executive Board held its first in-person meeting of 2025 in Frankfurt (Germany) on 20-21 February. During the meeting, President Laura Capranica and Treasurer Mojca Doupona presented the 2024 activity and financial reports, respectively, which were unanimously approved.

The contribution of EAS to the development of the ongoing ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnerships was illustrated and possible participations in the next call was envisaged. To facilitate exchanges of information between the dual career community, the functionality of the EAS website will be implemented in the next three months.

For the EAS cafés, several themes have been proposed, with the next events to be organized at the end of March-beginning of April, on June, and on December. Unfortunately, the Croatian Olympic Committee informed that the current financial situation does not permit to organize the 2025 EAS Conference and General Assembly in Croatia. The ExCom decided to enquiry several possible alternatives.

Antonio Sánchez Pato presented a proposal for the EAS Strategic Plan for the 2024-28 cycle, which was discussed by the members of the executive committee. Final considerations were dedicated to the possibility of implementing the EAS Stature to allow the inclusion of the Members of the Next Generation in the ExCom EAS, and individual memberships. These aspects will be presented to the General Assembly.

Dear EAS Members and Friends,

the EAS Executive Committee wishes you a peaceful 2024 Easter and takes the opportunity to update you.

Recent activities

January 26-27: The EAS Executive Board met at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), during which the 2024 activities of the Network were planned.

January 30: The EAS President Laura Capranica and Treasurer Mojca Doupona attended the “2024 EACEA InfoDay on ERASMUS+ Sport Programme and other EU funding opportunities” in Brussels, Belgium. This annual event updates on the EU priorities in sports. Recordings of the main sessions are available at the link https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/events/info-session-erasmus-sport-2024-2024-01-30_en, whereas further information on the Erasmus+ Programme is available in the Guide provided in 24 languages at https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-programme-guide.

February 27: The Members of the EAS Executive Board Ole Keldorf and Risto Keskitalo visited the Vice Rector Rajmund Tomik and the Director of international Relations Piotr Rodak at the Academy of Physical Education Katowice (Poland) to define the Conference programme dedicated to “Dual career at school and university – innovative bridges between sport and education”. In Katowice, the 2024European City of Science, the EAS members will have the best opportunities for to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of EAS. Further information of the 2024 EAS Conference is available at https://eas24.awf.katowice.pl

March 1: The Call for the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship has been launched. Researchers up to 40 years of age could be eligible for the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship by submitting as first author an original manuscript related to the scope of EAS before July 1st, 2024 (midnight CET) by e-mail to info@dualcareer.eu. By July 31, 2024, the winner will be informed that EAS will arrange travel, accommodation, and registration at the Annual EAS Conference in Katowice, Poland to present the scientific contribution on October 1-3, 2024.

March 11: the 12^th EAS Virtual Cafè was organized to address the challenges and opportunities of “Students-Athletes Facing the Olympic Games”. The event was a special opportunity to hear the voices of former Olympians and athletes facing for the first time the senior Olympic Games in Paris.  Moderated by the former Portuguese Olympic canoeing athlete Beatriz Gomes, at present Professor of Biomechanics at the University of Coimbra, and member of the Executive Board of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, the participants were Gévrise Émane, French Olympic judo medalist and three times world champion, at present working as life coach for athletes for the French sport institute (INSEP), 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, and Davide Di Veroli, Italian epee fencer qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, winner of an Italian Sportrait Award, student of Economics and Management at the Italian LUISS Guido Carli University.

The EU-funded  ERASMUS+ Capacity Building and Collaborative Partnerships

Sports as Value (101093451), the capacity building coordinated by ENGSO (Sweden) aims to build the capacity of sport managers and coaches in Balkan region for promoting the positive impact of grassroots sports and the values in and through sport. The best practices collected in Albania, Bosnia&Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and some other Member States will be summarized in a report. Further information is available at  https://www.engso-education.eu/sports-as-value/

Talent (101090147), the Collaborative Partnership coordinated by the Uciliste Centar Izvrsnosti Splitsko-Dalmatinske Zupanije Ustanova Za Obrazovanje Odraslih (Croatia) aims to develop a cloud-based education for creative sport talents. The report on Standards for the Recognition of Talented Children and the Methodological Handbook with Standards for the Detection and Assessment of the Potential of Talented Children in Sport have been finalized. In the next months, the user guidelines and the training materials will developed. Further information is available at https://talent-edu.eu

COMPATH (101050955), the Collaborative Partnership coordinated by COLLECTIVE INNOVATION AS (Norway) aims to Promote Employability of Young Student-Athletes through ‘‘Competence Hub’’ on Sport Innovation. Drawing inspiration from the findings from a study on the educational needs of young people who are aiming for a career in sports innovation, the Digital Sport Innovation Competence Hub is going to be developed. Further information is available at https://sportsinnovationshub.com

DiscoverU (101134052), the Collaborative Partnership coordinated by EUSA (Slovenia) aims to assess qualifications of elite athletes and to prepare them to the labour market. The project will develop e-learning materials for a Future Skills Curriculum, an Athlete Career Mentorship Platform Work, and organizie Power up Workshops for Elite Athletes.

DC MENTOR (101132309), the Collaborative Partnership coordinated by Sports Tech Consulting Education Tourism Organization Trade Limited Company (Turkeye) aims to Advancing Athlete Employability through Career Mentorship and Education. In particular, the project is designed to offer assistance to athlete for mitigating their difficulties in pursuing dual careers through tools and solutions in relation to life skills, future skills and 21th century skills.

SMART START for DC (101133555), the Collaborative Partnership coordinated by Sportsko Uciliste PESG (Croatia) aims to encourage the dual career of young high school athletes aged 14 and 19. To gather valuable insights of the skills and expectations of youth athletes across Europe, a survey has been developed and launched.

FIND ME (101134043), the Collaborative Partnership coordinated by the University of Nis aims to structure an evidence-based European user-friendly platform specifically tailored for dual career at university level. A survey is going to be launched to gather valuable insights to the development of the platform to best serve the needs of student-athletes across Europe.

Upcoming events

April 16-17: Under the Belgian Presidency of the European Union, the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission will organize the 2024 EU Sport Forum in Liege (Belgium) The event will bring together policy maker and representatives from sports organizations to discuss challenges and envisage opportunities for the European Sport.

April 22: 13^th EAS Cafè “University Sports: From Active Lifestyles to Dual Career”

EAS Conference

October 1-3, 2024, the Academy of Physical Education Katowice (Poland) will host the 2024 EAS Annual Conference “Dual career at school and university – innovative bridges between sport and education” (https://eas24.awf.katowice.pl).The Conference is the most important opportunity for the dual career community to be informed on the best practices at local, regional, and national levels, the findings and outcomes of EU-funded dual career projects, and the recognition of researchers awarded the Bengt Nybelius Scholarship (https://www.dualcareer.eu/call-for-papers-bengt-nybelius-scholarship-2024/)..

A special thank to the Executive Committee and the Members of our Network for their proactive attitude in the recruitment of new EAS members and the advancement of the European dual career culture. I strongly encourage you to keep disseminating the EAS activities for the benefit of sportspersons as students and workers.

Prof. Laura CAPRANICA,

EAS President

On April 20-21, 2023 The University of Rome Foro Italico (Italy) hosted the EAS Executive Board. During the meeting, the cooperation of EAS with European Institutions consolidated in 2020-2023 have been summarized to provide a basis of the development of the 2023-2026 strategic plan to be discussed and approved by the General Assembly during the 2023 EAS Conference to be held in Gaeta, Italy next October 2-4, 2023.

The roles of three EAS Committees have been discussed. In particular, the EAS Scientific Committee Antonio Tessitore – UNIMED, Chair); Elena Conde, UCAM – Masar Gjaka,  UBT) will foster dual career research and select the 2023 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship winners; of the EAS Communication Committee (Cristina Cortis – University of Cassino, Chaur; Piotr Rodak – Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, – Lotte Juhl – ESAA)  will work to increase the visibility of the EAS Conference in the EAS website and social media; and the New Generation EAS Committee (Flavia Guidotti – University of Rome Foro Italico, Chair; Sara Seidl, University of Mannheim; Hakon Ege, Collins Innovation) will provide new ideas for the EAS Cafè and other activities.

The development of the ongoing European projects (BRAVA-DC, coordinated by the University of Limerick, Ireland; COMPATH, coordinated by Collective Innovation AS -COLINN, Norway; PARA-LIMITS, coordinated by UCAM, Spain; TALENT coordinated by the Center of Excellence of Split Dalmatia County, Croatia; and SPORTS AS VALUE coordinated by ENGSO, Sweden) and the application to six new proposals have been presented also in light of the new rules of the European Commission.

During a meeting with Prof. Cristina Cortis from the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, the main aspects of the 2023 EAS Conference “Promoting Wellbeing in dual Career” and the cultural programme have been examined. Early registration fees (until August 1, 2023) will be 300 EUR for EAS Members and 450 EUR for non-members (including 150 EUR of 2023 EAS membership). After August 1, 2023, registration fees will be 400 EUR for EAS Members, and 550 EUR for not EAS members (including 150 EUR of EAS membership).

Save the date: the 10th EAS Cafè ““Dual career as European sports diplomacy beyond Europe” will be held on June 1, 2023.