PROJECTS / DOCUMENTS
Dear EAS Members and Dual Career Friends,
the EAS Executive Committee wishes you a happy Easter and takes the opportunity to update you on the recent and future activities.
Recent activities
February 20-21: The EAS Executive Board held its first in-person 2025 meeting in Frankfurt (Germany) , during which the activities of the Network have been organized and the 2024 activity and financial reports unanimously approved (https://www.dualcareer.eu/the-eas-executive-committee-meets-in-frankfurt/).
March 17: The EAS President visited the Headquarter of CISM to meet CISM Secretary General Navy Captain Roberto Recchia, CISM Academic Director Lieutenant-Commander Florentia Sfakianou, and dr. Andrea Carletti from Sport4Impact (https://www.dualcareer.eu/eas-meeting-the-international-military-sports-council-cism-and-the-sport-4-impact-in-brussels/).
March 18: The EAS President participated with other stakeholders to a consultative meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) on the role of the EU policies in shaping the European Sport Model (https://www.dualcareer.eu/eas-invited-at-the-european-parliament-as-a-stakeholders-to-the-eu-policies-in-shaping-the-european-sport-model/).
March 31: The 15th EAS online Cafè “From talent identification to talent support” has been organized in cooperation with the consortium of the ERASMUS+Sport TALENT (Cloud-based education for creative sport talents- 101090147) project (https://www.dualcareer.eu/the-15th-eas-cafe-on-dual-career-for-talented-athletes/).
April 1: EAS reminded to send long abstracts (5-15 pages) before April 27, 2025 to be published in the monograph Dual Career in School and University – Innovative Bridges between Sport and Education https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1085273800304586&set=pb.100064659286748.-2207520000
April 10-11: The EAS President participated in the EU Sport Forum 2025 in Kraków, Poland, which provided a unique opportunity to envisage the advancement of EU sport policies through a high-level dialogue. https://www.dualcareer.eu/eu-sport-forum-2025-in-krakow-poland/
April 11: The Talent Team met in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to celebrate the project’s achievements, to share knowledge, and to plan for the future of this impactful project dedicated to fostering equal education, preventing exclusion, and supporting dual careers for young athletes. https://www.dualcareer.eu/talent-project-concludes-successful-final-event-in-sarajevo/
April 14: 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 to be held in Riga, Latvia on October 6-8, 2025. https://www.dualcareer.eu/call-for-papers-bengt-nybelius-scholarship-2025/
April 15: The EAS President participated in the EUSA-NUSA online meeting focused on possible implementation of university sport, during which the new initiatives at EUSA, Croatian Academic Sport Federation, Polish University Sport Association, University of Salerno, Hungarian University Sport Federation, and the Dual Career Network have been presented. https://www.dualcareer.eu/discoveru-at-the-online-eusa-nusa-meeting/
The ongoing EU-funded ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnerships
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 Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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, and the development of Digital Sport Innovation Competence Hub. The final event will be held in Oslo next May 6, 2025. https://sportsinnovationshub.com
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. On June 17, 2025, the University of Murcia, Spain, will host the next transnational project meeting. Further information is available at https://dcmentor.eu
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 organize Power up Workshops for Elite Athletes. Events and webinars. Last April 15, DiscoverU presented new opportunities for university sport at the EUSA-NUSA webinar. Further information is available at https://discoveru.eusa.eu
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. On March 10, 2025, the Find Me Team organized an online meeting to finalize the online platform providing information about dual career opportunities at university level based on the findings of a survey recently published on an open access scientific journal (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2025.1507951/full?utm_source=F-NTF). Further information is available at https://findmeproject.net.
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. on February 4, 2025, the SmartStart4DC Team met online to align the goals and methodologies for the creation of the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on transversal skills for empowering youth athletes aged 14 to 19 years and helping them juggling training, classes, and personal life (https://www.dualcareer.eu/online-meeting-of-the-smart-start-for-dc-team/). Further information is available at https://www.facebook.com/p/Smart-Start-4-DC-61556732943039/
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. Further information is available at https://talent-edu.eu. The Talent Project Consortium Board held its last online meeting on March 4, presented the Talent Guidelines during the 15th EAS cafè on March 31, and held the final transnational meeting in Sarajevo on April 10-11 https://www.dualcareer.eu/talent-project-concludes-successful-final-event-in-sarajevo/. Further information is available at https://talent-edu.eu
Upcoming events
April 27: Deadline for submission of manuscripts to the Monograph Dual Career in School and University – Innovative Bridges between Sport and Education. For further information: prof. Rajmund Tomik (r.tomik@awf.katowice.pl).
April 28-29: Transnational Meeting of the ERASMUS+Sport project Smart Start for DC to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria.
May 6: Final event of the ERASMUS+Sport project COMPATH to be held in Olso, Norvegia.
May 14-15: EAS will participate to the 19th meeting of the EPAS Council of Europe Governing Board and joint meeting with the EPAS Consultative Committee.
May 15-16: The Member of the EAS Executive Committee Laurence Blondel will take part in the event Dual Career & International Mobility: Connect with a network of universities supporting student-athletes, to be held in Lyon (France) by the ERASMUS+Sport SAMEurope Consortium. On May 15, a cocktail party with front row seats to watch the elite cycling Criterium of the Tri’Crit’Races is planned. Registration to the event is required before 20 April at https://www.sameuropeproject.eu/dual-career-event-may-2025/.
May 16-17: Transnational Meeting of the ERASMUS+Sport project Find Me to be held in Oslo, Norvegia.
May-June: The 16th EAS cafè will be organized. Invitation will be posted on the EAS website (https://www.dualcareer.eu)
Bengt Nybelius Scholarship
July 1 (midnight CET): To be eligible for the 2025 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship, applicants up to 40 years of age must submit their original work related to the scope of EAS by e-mail to info@dualcareer.eu. More information is available at (https://www.dualcareer.eu/call-for-papers-bengt-nybelius-scholarship-2025/).
EAS Conference
October 6-8: the University of Latvia will host the 2025 EAS Annual Conference “Dual Career of Elite Athletes: Integrating Sport and Education for Future Success”.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. The final deadline for abstract submission is September 13, 2025.
Special thanks to the EAS Members for renovating their involvement in our Network (https://www.dualcareer.eu/membership/) and to the Members of the EAS Executive Committee for strong commitment to the advancement of the European dual career culture.
Prof. Laura Capranica,
EAS President
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
On March 31, 2025, around 70 participants attended the 15th EAS online Cafè “From talent identification to talent support” organized in cooperation with the consortium of the ERASMUS+Sport TALENT (Cloud-based education for creative sport talents- 101090147) project.
The Cafè was moderated by Prof. Antonio Figueiredo, EAS ExCom Mamber and expert scholar on talent identification, who welcomed the participants and invited them to contribute before April 27, 2025 to the monograph Dual Career in School and University – Innovative Bridges between Sport and Education. Prof. Figuiredo informed also on the 2025 EAS Conference to be held in Riga (Estonia) next October 6-8, 2025.
Prof. Zoran Milanovic (University of Nis, Serbia) introduced the concept of talent in sports and presented the challenges and opportunities in talent recognition. After offering an overview of the development of the scientific research in talent recognition and selection, he envisaged future opportunities that the artificial intelligence could provide to sport staff.
Mr. Ole Keldorf (Elite Sports Academy Aarhus, Denmark) illustrated the need of a holistic mindset to dual career to sustain talented athletes and provided information on the current approach at the sports academy of Aarhus, which offers dual career paths to more than 250 athletes of 34 sports, from the 8th of the elementary school, till secondary school graduation.
Prof. Nenad Stojiljkovic (University of Nis, Serbia), presented the aims and journey of the ERASMUS+Sport “TALENT” project, which has led to the TALENT Guidelines for coaches and teachers to recognize talented children; for teachers to support the development of talented students; for parents to nurture their children’s talents; for sports clubs to enhance support mechanisms for the dual career development of talented athletes; and for decision makers to develop educational institutions supporting dual careers for talented athletes.
TALENT is funded by the European Union (101090147). 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.
On March 17th, 2025, Laura Capranica, President of EAS, visited the Headquarter of CISM to met CISM Secretary General Navy Captain Roberto Recchia, CISM Academic Director Lieutenant-Commander Florentia Sfakianou, and dr. Andrea Carletti from Sport4Impact.
In presenting dual career opportunities offered by military sports to actual and former athletes and the efforts of CISM in organizing large global sports events, Lieutenant-Commander Florentia Sfakianou (Olympian) and Captain Roberto Recchia have been speakers at the 11th and 14th EAS cafès, respectively.
By reinforcing the collaboration with CISM and Sport4Impact, EAS contributes to bridging the gap between elite sports performance, education, and social development. During the meeting, joint initiatives have been envisaged to foster international cooperation in academic, scientific, and educational sports initiatives for sustaining the dual career of sportspersons, the sport values, and the integrity of sports.
Coordinated by Collective Innocation AS, EAS, CISM, Sport4Impact, Mouvement Européen pour le Fair Play-EFPM, the EUSA Intitute, and the UniversitàTelematica San Raffaele Roma cooperated in the preparation of the SPORT-Voice application to the ERASMUS+Sport 2024 Call.
Further information is available at https://www.milsport.one/news/march-2025-032025/cism-strengthens-ties-with-academic-and-community-sports-initiatives
Dear friends of Dual Career,
On behalf of the EAS Executive Committee, I inform you that the 15th EAS Virtual Cafè on “From talent identification to talent support” will be held on Monday March 31, 2025 (from 13:00 CET). You can join the Zoom Meeting at https://uni-lj-si.zoom.us/j/97281335276
13:00 Welcome – Prof. Antonio Figueiredo, University of Coimbra
13:10 Prof. Challenges and opportunities in talent recognition – Prof, Zoran Milanovic, University of Nis, Serbia
13:25 The holistic approach to talent support in Denmark – Mr. Ole Keldorf, Head of Sport at Elite Sports Academy Aarhus, Denmark
13:40 The talent journey: Guidelines for coaches, parents, teachers – Prof. Nenad Stojiljkovic, University of Nis, Serbia
13:55 General discussions and concluding remarks
Speakers:
Prof. Zoran Milanovic Associate Professor at the Sports and Physical Education Faculty of the University of Niš, Serbia, he has published more than 100 papers in international journal. He is a member of International Network of Sport and Health Science (INSHS)
Mr. Ole Keldorf, Head of Sport at Elite Sports Academy Aarhus, Member of the EAS Executive Committee, Coach educator at the Danish Football Association, Member Advisory Board for Youth Elite in the Danish FE. Author and Editor of several articles and books and talent development.
Prof. Nenad Stojiljkovic, Vice Dean for Science and International Cooperation at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education of the University of Nis, expert of designing research process, with more than 40 scientific prublications. Coordinator of the “FIND ME” and Member of the “TALENT” ERASMUS+Sport projects
Moderator
Prof. Antonio Figueiredo, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education of the University of Coimbra, Member of the EAS Executive Committee, expert of youth training and talent identification and development with an emphasis on soccer.
Funded by the ERASMUS+Sport programme (101134043), the FIND ME project aims to structure an evidence-based European platform specifically tailored for dual career at university level through a joint effort of five European universities (Faculty of Sport and Physical Education University of Nis, Coordinator; University of Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele D’Annunzio”, Italy; Faculty of Sport University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; University Alexandru Ioan Cuza Din Iasi, Romania; Universidad Internacional De La Rioja, Spain), an impact-driven organisation (Collective Innovation – COLIN, Norway) and EAS.
On March 10, 2025, the Find Me Team organized an online meeting to discuss key milestones, to address challenges, and to assess the overall alignment of activities with the project’s objectives. Based on the deskwork and fieldwork at national levels in Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Spain (https://findmeproject.net/#flipbook-df_626/1/), and the recent publication of findings of a survey on the views of 321student-athletes’ and 43 dual career university experts (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2025.1507951/full?utm_source=F-NTF), the team is planning the creation of an online platform providing information about dual career opportunities at university level, discussing its technical characteristics and requirements to ensure its functionality and accessibility.
The FIND ME 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 Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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.
“Military Sport: Dual Career Opportunities and Challenges”
December 9, 2024 (from 13:55 CET)
13:00 Welcome
Roberto Recchia, Italian Navy Captain, Secretary General of the International Military Sports Council (CISM) since May 2022. He accomplished his academic degrees in Maritime & Naval Science at the University of Pisa and in Political Sciences at the University of Trieste, has been the Principal Staff Officer of the NATO Naval Mine Countermeasures Force and Commander of the Italian Navy’s historic and iconic training ship Amerigo Vespucci, which is Ambassador of UNESCO and UNICEF.
13:10 Nina Christen, Swiss sports shooter and athlete of the Swiss Armed Forces, Olympic bronze and gold medalist (Tokyo 2020) with a CISM World Record at the 54th World Military Shooting Championship (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2023), and flag bearer for Team Switzerland in Paris 2024. She was awarded the CISM Athletes of the Year 2023.
13:25 Maruša Štangar
Slovenian judoka and athlete of the Slovenian Armed Forces, two-time Olympian (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), 5th place at the Military World Games (Wuhan 2019). She achieved a Master’s degree in Food Science at the University of Ljubljana, awarded with Certificate of distinction for academic achievement.
13:40 Alberto Arpino, Italian fencer and athlete of the Italian Firefighting Corp, gold medalist at the FISU University Games (Chengdu, 2021) and Master’s degree graduate in Management and Business Consulting at the San Raffaele University of Rome defending a thesis on dual career. He received the “Excellent Athlete, Excellent Student” and “Alfiere della Repubblica” awards.
13:55 General discussions and concluding remarks
The 2024 annual EAS Conference and General Assembly have been held face-to-face in Katowice, Poland, on October 1-3, organized by the Academy of Physical Education of Katowice. The 2024 European City of Science welcomed around 70 participants from 17 different countries in presence and others attending online. With its well-developed economy and culture, Katowice was the perfect place to celebrate the 20th anniversary of EAS in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
In the first day, the opening ceremony was introduced by Piotr Rodak, President of the Organizing Committee, followed by EAS President Laura Capranica, Vice Rector of Sport AWF Katowice Adam Zajac, and a video message from MEP and former Olympic athlete Jagna Marczulajtis-Wall, The session was closed by Rajmund Tomik, Conference Director.
Key lectures focused on the AWF – School of Champions by Adam Zajac (Academy of Physical Education in Katowice – AWF); the Erasmus+ funding opportunities on Dual Careers by Izabela Pelczynska from the European Education and Culture Executive Agency – EACEA; the FISU Dual Career programme by Bill Thompson from the Education Committee of the International University Sports Federation (FISU); and the the European Network of Sport Education – ENSE by President Antonio Tessitore, who signed a Memorandum of Understanding between EAS and ENSE.
The Bengt Nybelius Scholarship winner Flavia Guidotti from the University San Raffaele of Rome, Italy, presented the dual career experiences of female soccer players, preceding the EAS 20th anniversary commemoration, led by the EAS founder and Honorary President Risto Keskitalo, who summarized the history and main achievements of the Network.
In the afternoon sessions focused on oral presentations on dual career at university level and a session specifically dedicated to European projects on dual career encompassing: FIND ME: University Dual Career Opportunities (Nenad Stojiljkovic, and Pascal Izzicupo); HEPALIS, An Online Educational Chance (Juan Alfonso Garcia-Roca); DiscoverU – Discovering University Sport and Supporting Dual Career (Andrej Pisl); SAMEurope (Dorothée Brac de la Perrière); Smart Start for DC – Encouraging the Dual Career of Young High School Athletes (Renato Vuk); Talent (Antonino Scardina); and the Capacity Building ‘Sports as Value’ – Societal Impact and Development of Grassroots Sports in the Western Balkans (Faton Tishukaj).
On the second day, the Conference was organized at the Silesian Stadion Slaski in Chorzow, where the panel discussion on Sport in School and University was chaired by Piotr Rodak, with the former Olympian and sport journalist Weronika Nowakowska, the representative of the Academic Sports Association of Poland – AZS Marianna Pikul, Vice-Dean of AWF Katowice Krzysztof Wilusz, and Olympian student-athlete at the AWF Katowice Maciej Wyderka sharing their experiences and commitment for the advancement of dual career in Poland.
Following the sessions dedicated to oral presentations on dual career at high school and university levels, the Annual General Assembly was directed by the EAS Secretary Ole Keldorf. The members approved the activity report presented by the President Laura Capranica and the financial report presented by the Treasurer Mojca Doupona, duly checked by Florentino Huertas and Nenad Stojiljkovic. Furthermore, the Assembly nominated Flavia Guidotti (Telematic University San Raffaele, Italy), Alejandro Alejandro Leiva-Arcas (UCAM, Spain), and Malene Thisgaard Knudsen (Aarhus University, Denmark) as Members of the Next Generation EAS Committee, which will be responsible to assign the 2025 Bengt Nybelius Award and to collaborate to the enhancement of the communication channels of the Network.
At the end of the General Assembly, Romana Caput-Jogunica invited the EAS members to attend the 22nd EAS Conference to be held in Zagreb next 2025 on behalf of the Croatian Olympic Committee and the University of Zagreb, in cooperation with dual career associations.
The participants had also the opportunity to visit the sports infrastructure and facilities of the Stadion Slaski before attending the Gala Dinner having a sky overview the town of Katowice.
During the last day of the Conference, the closing ceremony was organized after a tour at the Guido Mine museum located at 320m underground in Zabrze. The Conference book of abstracts is available at https://eas24.awf.katowice.pl. The Academy of Physical Education in Katowice – AWF is planning to publish a book of the contributions.
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.
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Email: info@dualcareer.eu