Project summary

ATHLETES 4 SOCIETY

Empowering the public value of sport through athletes as role models

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AIM

Athletes 4 society is a 2-year project that started in January 2021 (01/01/2021 – 30/06/2023). This Erasmus+ Sport project aims to inspire, support, and stimulate sports organisations to increase the public value of sport. More specifically, the objective is to develop and implement recommendations and tools to develop and optimize policies, campaigns or programmes that successfully put athletes to good use towards positive societal impact.

 

 

 

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The project and its outcomes aim to make an impact by bringing direct added value to practice, research and policy by:  

 

• promoting and supporting good governance in sport of athletes;

• promoting voluntary activities in sport, together with social inclusion, equal opportunities and awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity, through increased participation in, and equal access to sport for all.

 

ATHLETES 4 SOCIETY CONSORTIUM

 

In order to ensure an optimal expertise in relation to the topic of the public value of sport, the project team brings together experts with specific and complementary expertise, responsibilities and tasks, from seven EU Member States. The consortium – coordinated by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel - includes:

 

Academic sport partners:

• Vrije Universiteit Brussel – coordinator (Belgium; Veerle De Bosscher, Sofie Smismans, Eva Gielens)

• Research Institute for Olympic Sports (Finland; Jarmo Mäkinen, Jari Lämsä, Kaisu Mononen))

• Utrecht University (The Netherlands; Maarten Van Bottenburg, Jan-Willem van der Roest)

• Kenniscentrum Sport & Bewegen (The Netherlands; Herman Ijzerman, Cees Vervoorn)

 

Innovative private partners with experience in the sport sector:

• Bilendi SA – research bureau (France; Roel Vercammen, Hans Verhoeven, Gunther Ackermans)

• Kinetic Analysis – IT & innovation (The Netherlands; Maarten Gijssel, Ingrid van de Port, Melvin Franken)

• Twist – media (Belgium)

 

Public sport associations/organisations

• Sport Vlaanderen – Sport policy (Belgium)

• Sport Evolution Alliance (Portugal; Pedro Dias, Filipa Cavalleri)

• Czech Olympic Committee, Coaches Academy (Czechia; Michal Barda, Michel Jezdik)

• Institute for Sport Governance (Poland; Grzegorz Botwina, Pawel Zembura, Piotr Poplawski)

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 For more information on the consortium, please go to "The Team".